424 Presidentship of William Spottiswoode 1879 



There were five absentees. Four of these were not 

 " discontinued," but the fifth, the Earl of Caithness, having 

 been absent for two years, was considered to be no longer 

 a member of the Club. The number of dinners during the 

 year was 18, attended by 223 persons, consisting of 200 

 members and 23 visitors, with an average attendance 

 of 12. 



The death of Charles Brooke was announced. Sir William 

 Thomson, no doubt finding that his work in Glasgow 

 required most of his time and that his distance from London 

 was a serious obstacle to his attendance at the Club, resigned 

 his membership. There were thus three vacancies and 

 eleven candidates. As the result of the voting the elected 

 members were Professor Bartholomew Price, Admiral Sir 

 Astley Cooper Key, and Dr. William James Russell. 



The meetings for the forthcoming session were arranged 

 to be again eighteen, but differently distributed through 

 the months. There was to be one in November and in 

 December, three in January and in February, two in March, 

 four in April, one in May and three in June, the last being 

 that of the Anniversary. 



Of the new members elected this year, the Rev. B. Price 

 was Sadleian Professor of Natural Philosophy at Oxford 

 from 1853 till his death in 1898. He became F.R.S. in 

 1852. Admiral Sir A. Cooper Key entered the Navy in 

 1833 and after varied service at home and abroad was 

 in 1873 appointed first President of the Royal Naval College. 

 He became Admiral in 1878 and next year was appointed 

 First Naval Lord of the Admiralty. He was elected into 

 the Royal Society in 1868. He died in 1888. Dr. W. J. 

 Russell, a chemist of repute, entered the Royal Society in 

 1872. 



We have now passed over the interval of twenty-four 

 years of which the dinner-registers of the Club cannot be 

 found. The minute-books of those years, which have been 

 fully used in the foregoing chapters, containing as they do 

 the reports of the Anniversary Meetings when the elections 

 and other business of the Club are for the most part trans- 



