3 86 Presidentship of Sir Benjamin Erodie 1861 



many gatherings in London where so varied and pleasant 

 a company was welcomed by so kindly and accomplished 

 a host. At the time of his election into the Royal Society 

 he was only twenty-four years of age and his admission into 

 the Club came three years later. There then lay before 

 him more than half a century of the most varied activity 

 and usefulness. 



William Allen Miller, M.D., Professor of Chemistry at King's 

 College, London, was not only an able chemist but one of 

 the early students of spectrum analysis. He was associated 

 with Huggins in the investigation of the spectra of the 

 stars, whereby the presence of known terrestrial elements 

 was first detected in the stellar universe. He became 

 F.R.S. in 1845. 



Edward Frankland took a high place among the English 

 chemists of his day. He studied in his youth, together with 

 John Tyndall, under Bunsen at Marburg, and from that 

 University obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 

 His early work gained for him the Fellowship of the Royal 

 Society in 1853 and a Royal Medal in 1857. He held 

 successively the position of Professor of Chemistry at various 

 institutions until in 1865, succeeding Hofmann, he was 

 appointed to the Chair of Chemistry in the Normal School 

 of Science at South Kensington, now the Imperial College 

 of Science and Technology, where he remained in activity 

 for twenty years, retiring in 1885. He was President of 

 the Chemical Society in 1871-3 and of the Institute of 

 Chemistry from 1877 * 1880. In recognition of his public 

 services he was made K.C.B. in 1897. He died in 1899 at 

 the age of seventy-four. 



William Spottiswoode, a future President of the Royal 

 Society, has been already referred to (p. 363). 



Sir Benjamin Brodie was re-elected President of the 

 Club at the Anniversary Meeting this year, but the state 

 of his health was becoming precarious, and he had been 

 unable to be present at any of the meetings of the 

 Club during the past year. He resigned his presidentship 

 of the Royal Society on 3oth November, 1861, having 



