1876 Charles Wyville Thomson ,4.15 



showed that the expenditure for the past year was 

 123 los. 2|d. and that this sum exceeded the income by 

 10 os. 2jd. It was agreed that the subscription for the 

 ensuing year should remain at 2 2s. 



The death of three members of the Club was reported 

 Sir Charles Wheatstone, Colonel Strange, and Lord Lyttelton. 

 Mr. Busk sent in his resignation, Mr. Sylvester had " left 

 the country," no doubt to take up his duties as Professor 

 of Mathematics at the Johns Hopkins University of Balti- 

 more, Maryland, and Sir Rowland Hill, who had become an 

 octogenarian, would now pass from the ordinary into the 

 Honorary List. 



There were thus six vacancies and the waiting list showed 

 twelve candidates. As the result of the voting the following 

 gentlemen were elected : Dr. Charles Wyville Thomson, 

 Joseph Prestwich, Philip Lutley Sclater, Augustus Wollaston 

 Franks, Edward Thomas, and Heinrich Debus. 



Charles Wyville Thomson, educated at Edinburgh Univer- 

 sity, showed an early taste for natural history. When only 

 twenty-three years of age he was appointed to the Chair of 

 Natural History in Queen's College, Cork, which he exchanged 

 next year for that of Geology and Mineralogy in Queen's 

 College, Belfast. In 1870 he came back to his Alma Mater as 

 Professor of the biological side of Natural History in succes- 

 sion to Allman at the Edinburgh University. While still at 

 Belfast he had greatly distinguished himself by deep-sea 

 researches carried on for several years in the vessels Lightning 

 and Porcupine. The interest thus aroused in the subject 

 and the prospect of the great increase of our knowledge of 

 the sea which further and more elaborate exploration would 

 yield led ultimately, largely through the action of the Royal 

 Society, to the great voyage of the Challenger from 1872 to 

 1876. Wyville Thomson was the scientific head of this 

 admirably equipped expedition, which achieved a splendid 

 success. He was knighted on his return, and then set about 

 the preparation of the reports on the scientific results that 

 had been gathered. But his health began to fail. Though 

 he was able to write two volumes, one on the Depths of the 



