190 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1790 



There was a goodly number of foreign visitors at the 

 Club in the course of this year. Of these were the Marquis 

 de Souza, the Baron Vay de Vaja, M. Patricot and Dr. 

 Ingenhousz invited by the President ; M. iSpivent, M. 

 L'Evesque and M. Ungeschiek, guests of Maskelyne ; Colonel 

 de Mestral, Professor von Marum from Haerlem, M. Rochon, 

 M. L'Huillier and M. Possett, Professor of History from 

 Prague, introduced by Blagden, and Herr Herrenschneider, 

 Professor of Astronomy at Strasburg, the guest of Dr. 

 Simmons. 



M. Rochon was a French astronomer and physicist then 

 about fifty years of age, who had voyaged over the Indian 

 Ocean, making many hydrographic observations. He devoted 

 so much attention to the construction of optical instruments 

 that the French government made him astronomical optician 

 to the Navy. He had been sent to England this year in 

 connection with the adoption of a new system of weights 

 and measures. In the midst of the internal troubles of 

 his country he was two years later deprived of all his posts. 

 He then retired into Brittany and occupied himself with 

 different works of public utility, while at the same time 

 he had the satisfaction of being able to save a number of 

 victims from the scaffold. One of these, his own cousin, 

 rewarded him by bestowing her hand on him. In 1796 

 he was appointed Director of the Observatory which at 

 his suggestion the Government had established at Brest. 

 In 1805 he obtained permission to reside in Paris where 

 he continued to write papers on optics and other branches 

 of science. He died in 1817 at the age of 76. 



John Louis Alexander Herrenschneider was a French 

 meteorologist who at the University of Strasburg pursued 

 at first law-studies, but his real bent being towards science, 

 he was allowed to carry on the mathematical teaching of 

 his uncle who had died. In the end he was appointed 

 Professor of Astronomy, and undertook a journey through 

 Europe in order to visit the observers and observatories 

 of most renown. When an imperial university was set 

 up at Strasburg he obtained the chair of physics which he 



