1850 Quetelet ; Earrande; Scblagintweits ; Catlin 359 



The practice of providing no dinners at Easter and 

 Christmas was continued this year, also that of giving up 

 the Club meeting on the day of the election of candidates 

 at the Royal Society, and joining the general company of 

 Fellows who dined together after the ballot. 



A few foreigners of note attended the Club this year. 

 Quetelet, the Belgian astronomer, was introduced by Pro- 

 fessor Wheatstone on April 25th. He had been made a 

 foreign member of the Royal Society in 1839. Joachim 

 Barrande, the illustrious explorer of the Cambrian and 

 Silurian rocks of Bohemia, was brought to the Club by 

 his admiring friend Murchison on November 28. To the 

 unwearied pioneer labours of this student of the Primordial 

 Fauna and the unstinted liberality with which he published 

 and distributed the results of his investigations the science 

 of geology is deeply indebted. Two of the brothers Schla- 

 gintweit dined with the Club on December I2th, Hermann 

 introduced by the Chief Baron Pollock and Adolf by Wheat- 

 stone. They had already attracted attention by their work 

 on the physical geography of the Alps, which was published 

 this year; their great Himalayan enterprise was still to 

 come. Another foreign explorer, George Catlin, was intro- 

 duced by Captain W. H. Smyth. With extraordinary 

 enthusiasm this enterprising citizen of the United States 

 had spent long years among the Indians of the Far West, 

 studying their manners and customs, and painting large 

 numbers of portraits of men of the various tribes. In 

 1841 he published in London what is now a classic volume 

 on the North American Indians, wherein much is portrayed 

 that has since vanished. His unique and valuable collection 

 of more than 500 portraits painted from life is now preserved 

 in the United States National Museum in Washington. 



John Couch Adams was brought to the Club dinner on 

 loth January by Wheatstone. When little more than 

 twenty years of age this brilliant genius had discovered the 

 existence of the planet Neptune by a study of the irregu- 

 larities of Uranus. Although Le vender working indepen- 

 dently anticipated him in the publication of the discovery, 



