Dec. 1, 1881] 
NATURE 
115 
period of this variable appears to be about 4364 days, and a 
maximum may be expected about January 19, 1882; its magni- 
tude at maximum has been estimated 6°5 by Schmidt and 6 by 
Gould; at minimum it is about 8°5. Observations of the 
degree of intensity of colour in this “crimson star” are desirable, 
as there are indications that it has varied with variation in bright- 
ness. At times it has been recorded that the red colour was not 
particularly striking, whereas at the first observation of this star 
in October 1845 it arrested attention whilst comet-sweeping. 
(2) R. Draconis. Dr. Schmidt noted a maximum on April 22 
in the present year, or 251 days after the preceding one, so that 
another maximum may be looked for about December 29. The 
star is Lalande 30387, and its variability was detected at Chris- 
tiania ; the position for 1882°0 is in R.A. 16h. 32m. 20s. Decl. 
+ 67°01; itis followed by a star 8'9m. (L 30413) by 53s., 1/°5 
to the south of it. Prof. Pickering’s suspected variable of 1881, 
September 13, is about 54° to the north; R.A. 16h, 31m. 32s., 
Decl. + 72° 32’; it is ‘fred, spectrum-banded.” 
(3) « Cephei (Bayer) is probably now on the increase, but 
we do not find very recent observations; the position of this 
**garnet-sidus” for 18820 is in R.A. 2th. 39m. 53°7s., Decl. 
+ 58° 14’ 21”; Argelander’s mean period is 432 days, Prof. 
Schonfeld calls it ‘‘ irregular.” 
THE ROYAL SOCIETY—ADDRESS OF THE 
PRESIDENT 
ON the occasions of our anniversary our first glance is usually 
retrospective, in memory of those once among our numbers, 
but now surviving only in their works. On our home list we 
have this year lost more than a score of Fellows. On the foreign 
list we have lost but one; that loss will however be severely, if 
not so widely, felt. 
In Michael Chasles mathematicians recognise a geometer of 
unusual powers, who, having devoted a long life to his favourite 
study, has left an extensive and characteristic train of researches 
behind him, Buta larger circle of friends recognised in him a 
great and good man, beloved by all who knew him, and respected 
beyond the range of his personal acquaintance. As a pure 
geometer he belonged to a class of mathematicians for which 
the Academy of Sciences of Paris has long been justly cele- 
brated ; but whose numbers appear liable to a perceptible fluctu- 
ation, perhaps partly owing to the brilliant opportunities and 
the varied fascinations which modern algebra offers to the student. 
Eminent ina nation which has always been intolerant of ob- 
scurity in science, he showed in a remarkable degree how much 
might be elicited through precision of thought and by clearness 
of exposition from a few well-selected and fertile ideas. Such, 
for instance, proved to be the consideration of Anharmonic 
Ratios, the principle of Correspondence, and the method of 
Characteristics. Whether in the latter he had struck a vein so 
completely out of the range of the analyst, as he himself sup- 
posed, may perhaps be still claimed as an open question ; but 
certain it is that he showed the fertility of the method by con- 
tinuing to deduce from it an apparently inexhaustible flow of 
theorems, even after the more serious part of his mathematical 
work had been done. And there is little doubt that long after 
the time when many subsequent works have fulfilled their pur- 
pose, and have fallen into a natural oblivion, his ‘‘ Apercu His- 
torique,” his ‘‘Géométrie Supérieure,” and the fragment of his 
** Traité des Sections Coniques,” will be regarded as classics in 
the library of the mathematician, 
Turning to the home list, the remark made in my last address, 
viz. that our losses had been mainly among our older Fellows, 
might be repeated with even more emphasis on the present occa- 
sion. Of the twenty-two who have died during the intervening 
period nine had reached the age of three score and ten, eight 
that of four score, and one, Dr. Billing, had attained his ninety- 
first year. 
In Lord Beaconsfield and Sir James Colvile we have lost two 
distinguished members, elected under the statute which gaye a 
new definition of the privileged class a few years ago. Lord 
Hatherley will be recollected as having served on our Council 
within recent years, and as having often given us very useful 
advice on subjects requiring the sound judgment of an expe- 
rienced mind. Although Lord Hatherley would doubtless have 
been elected, as a member of the Privy Council, under the 
t Address of William Spottiswoode, D.C.L., LL.D., the president, de- 
livered at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Society on Wednesday, 
November 30, 1881. 
statute above mentioned, it is perhaps worth remark that he 
was elected under statute previously existing, and that his fellow- 
ship dated from the year 1833. 
The late Dean of Westminster furnishes another instance of 
the wise exercise of a power which the Royal Society has always 
reserved to itself, notwithstanding the changes made in 1847, of 
electing from time to time men of eminent distinction in other 
avocations of life than those of strict science. Of Dr. Stanley’s 
attainments and merits in those other directions it is not my 
province to speak ; and, indeed, it is the less necessary that I 
should do so, for they were so many and so varied that in one 
way or other they were known to all. But he was conspicuous, 
both among the members of his own profession and among many 
others who have neither predilection nor training for actual 
science, for his genuine and honest sympathy with its principles 
and its objects, and with the labours of those who cultivate it. 
In Dr. Lloyd, whose age was coeval with the century, and who 
was a fellow-worker with Herschel, Whewell, Peacock, and Sir 
W. R. Hamilton, we seem to have lost one of the links which 
connected us with a past generation. While himself no mean 
mathematician, he was distinguished especially in the sciences 
of optics and of magnetism. In the subject of optics he had 
the rare opportunity of supplying the experimental verification 
of Sir W. R. Hamilton’s brilliant geometrical conclusions on the 
configuration of the wave-surface ; and it was largely due to his 
patience, his delicacy of touch, and his almost instinctive saga- 
city, that the phenomena of conical refraction were first made 
visible to the human eye. In magnetism he assisted in the forma- 
tion of the great survey of the globe, initiated by Sir E. Sabine, 
and as director of a magnetic observatory in Dublin he made 
valuable contributions to the subject. His scientific remains, 
brought together in one volume, have been a welcome addition 
to the library both of the mathematician and of the experi- 
mentalist. His interest in science and in its promoters was 
active throughout his long life ; and those on whom the honorary 
degree of LL.D. was conferred at the late meeting of the 
British Association in Dublin, will always cherish as a pleasant 
reminiscence the fact of having received it at his hands. 
Dr. Bigsby was one of the earlier cultivators of Geology. 
Some of his first studies were made at a time when the subject 
was hardly a science; but in attaining the advanced age of 
eighty-nine he lived to see it what it has since become. He 
founded a medal at the Geological Society, of which he was for 
many years a member. 
We are again reminded of the progress which has been made 
in science, and in the cultivation of it during the present genera- 
tion, by the fact that until the last day of last year we could 
reckon among our Fellows Dr. John Stenhouse, one of the 
surviving founders of the Chemical Society. 
On the subject of our property there is little change to report. 
Farther investments have been made in due course on account 
of the Fees Reduction Fund. The sale of the Acton estate has 
not yet been completed, but a deposit is in hand, and a half 
year’s interest on the balance hai been received. 
The Charitable Trusts Bill, which was introduced into Par- 
liament last session, and which would have affected our interests 
had it not been fora clause introduced by our Fellow the Marquis 
of Salisbury, specially exempting the Royal Society from its 
operation, was withdrawn. 
The collection of portraits in the possession of the Society has 
been enriched by the addition of a portrait of Sir Joseph Dalton 
Hooker, painted by John Collier, Esq., at the expense of a 
considerable number of our Fellows, who were desirous of 
expressing their sense of the important services rendered by Sir 
Joseph to the Society, and at the same time of securing a per- 
manent memorial of their late president. It is to be hoped that 
advantage may be taken of any suitable occasions that may arise 
from time to time of adding to our gallery of historical records 
of the great men whom we have reckoned among our Fellows. 
The Fellows will learn with satisfaction that the first part of 
the new edition of our library catalogue is published. This part, 
consisting of 232 pages, contains the Zraxsactions, Proceedings, 
and Yourna!s published by societies and institutions in nearly 
all parts of the world; and also the observations, reports, and 
accounts of surveys which are to be found in our library. As 
our Library Committee has always devoted great attention to 
securing by exchange or by purchase publications of this class, 
and as the main strength of our library consequently lies in our 
collection of them, the part in question will form the most 
important section of the entire catalogue. 
