228 Presidentship of Sir Joseph Banks 1807 



He was educated for the Church, had now actually passed 

 all his examinations and had been licensed as a preacher 

 in the Scottish Kirk ; but finding himself, owing to a nervous 

 disability, debarred from continuing in the ministry, he gave 

 up the clerical profession and took to physical science, 

 for which even from boyhood he had shown special apti- 

 tude. Devoting himself to the study of light and the pro- 

 blems of optics he achieved before many years a world-wide 

 reputation as an original investigator and one of the most 

 energetic advocates of the cause of science. Besides his 

 purely scientific papers, he became a prolific writer of 

 reviews, articles and other contributions to scientific and 

 literary publications. It is to be remembered also that he 

 was one of the original founders of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science. He will appear again in 

 these pages when the main part of his active life had passed 

 and when he was universally respected as one of the notable 

 philosophers of his day. 



Maskelyne's second guest, John Leslie, has already been 

 referred to (p. 201) . He like Brewster had been meant to enter 

 the Church of Scotland, but his bent towards mathematics 

 and natural philosophy was so strong that he abandoned a 

 clerical calling and spent ten years in an investigation of 

 the nature and properties of Heat. The work which he pub- 

 lished on this subject in 1804 gave him at once an European 

 reputation. The Royal Society promptly recognised the 

 importance of his research by awarding him the Rumford 

 Medal, and his name occurs immediately after that of 

 Count Rumford at the head of the brilliant list of Medallists. 

 He became Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh when 

 John Playfair exchanged this chair for that of Natural 

 Philosophy, and when Playfair died in 1819 Leslie was 

 with general approbation appointed successor to that dis- 

 tinguished man. He was the author of many treatises, 

 papers and articles, and in 1832 he received royal recognition 

 by being knighted. 



On the 8th October Humphry Davy introduced to the 

 Club George Bellas Greenough a name held in veneration 



