616 
NATURE 
[April 14, 1870 
progress of discovery in Australia from Captain Cook’s voyage, 
and the foundation of Port Jackson in 1788; the labours and 
journeys of Dr. Bass, Sturt, Mitchell, Eyre, &c., were glanced 
at. Dr. Leichhardt was absent two years on his first expedition 
to Port Essington, and was given up for lost, a monument, 
with an epitaph composed by a friend, having been erected to 
him. In conclusion a hope was expressed that geographical 
discovery would be still prosecuted, especially with reference to 
the magnificent but almost unknown Papua or New Guinea, the 
position, fauna, and flora of which constitute it a natural ap- 
pendage to Australia, a line of small islands connecting it with our 
settlement at Cape York. Captain Blackwood in H.M.S. Ziy, 
in 1845, examined 140 miles of coast, lat. S. 8° 45’, long. E. 
143° 35, to 7 40’ lat. 144° 30’ long., containing fthe delta of a 
large river. In the south-eastern peninsula, mountains 11,000 ft. 
to 13,000 ft. high, were observed by Captain Stanley, these were 
in sight for several days coasting, with richly wooded slopes. 
The Government survey vessel at Cape York might be used 
for exploration of this country. The natives were hostile, 
and had the reputation of being fierce and warlike. The 
president said that he had urged on the Government the 
impolicy of uniting North and South Australia, and the necessity 
of forming a port of refuge, and a naval station at Port Darwin. 
He alluded to Mr. Crawford’s estimate of the Papuan climate as 
most unhealthy. General Lefroy reminded the meeting of the 
omitted name of his brother, a successful explorer of Western 
Australia. The question of the suitability of Port Darwin as a 
depot for the horses to be sent to India was discussed. The 
project had been favourably reported on to Lord Mayo by Sir 
James Ferguson, the North-eastern or Flinders river route 
being preferred. With regard to the climate, Mr. Findlay 
mentioned the excellence of the Timor ponies. Mr. Saunders 
pointed out that the navigation would be much safer if a port 
were selected in the Gulf of Carpentaria. 
Chemical Society, March 30.—Anniversary meeting, Prof. 
Williamson, F.R.S., President, in the chair. The following 
officers have been elected for the ensuing year :—President, Dr. 
A. W. Williamson ; Vice-presidents who have filled the office 
of president, Sir B. C. Brodie, Warren De la Rue, A. W. Hof- 
mann, Dr. W. A. Miller, Dr. Lyon Playfair, Col. P. Yorke ; 
Vice-presidents, Dr. J. H. Gilbert, Dr. E. Frankland, Dr. A. 
Matthiessen, Dr. H. M. Noad, Prof. W. Odling, Dr. T. Red- 
wood; Secretaries, A. Vernon Harcourt, W. H. Perkin ; 
Foreign Secretary, Dr. H. Miiller;* Treasurer, F. A. Abel ; 
ordinary members of the Council, Dr. E. Atkinson, H. 
Bassett, E. T. Chapman, F. Field, David Forbes, Dr. M. Holz- 
mann, Dr. E. J. Mills, Dr. W. J. Russell, Dr. Maxwell Simp- 
son, Dr. R. Angus Smith, Dr. John Tyndall, Dr. A. Voelcker. 
After communication of the above list the president delivered 
the following address :— ‘‘Gentlemen,—On behalf of the council 
I feel very great pleasure in congratulating you on the rapidly 
increasing usefulness and prosperity of our Society. The 
most interesting incident in the history of the past year 
has been the delivery by M. Dumas of the inaugural Faraday 
lecture. It was indeed an impressive tribute to the memory of 
our great countryman which was paid by that noble veteran of 
science, and one of which the record ought to occupy a place of 
honour in our journal. We still hope to receive from M. Dumas 
a manuscript of his classical discourse. The council have had 
the pleasure of accepting the offer of a munificent donation of 
Palladium from Messrs. Johnstone and Matthey to be used for 
the preparation of the ten first Faraday medals. Your council 
have felt it to be of considerable importance to give greater pub- 
licity to the proceedings of the society, and they have accordingly 
made provisional arrangements for the preparation of abstracts 
of the papers, and in some cases of the discussions, for trans- 
mission to such papers as desire to publish them. These ab- 
stracts already appear in several papers and are read with interest. 
Another matter of considerable importance has been brought 
under the notice of your council, and has been by them referred 
to the careful consideration of a sub-committee who will report 
to the new council. ‘The great activity of chemists in France 
and Germany leads to the publication of vast quantities of im- 
portant matter in languages not easily intelligible to many of our 
members, and a feeling has been entertained for some time 
past that the progress of our science and of its applications 
would be greatly promoted by the regular publication in the 
English language of accurate reports of all chemical papers. 
For many years past annual reports of this kind have been pub- 
lished in Germany, first under the auspices of the great Berzelius, 
and latterly under those of Liebig and Kopp. The French 
Chemical Society has also added yery greatly to the value of 
their journal by publishing in it reports of a great number of im- 
portant papers from various sources, and I am happy to say that 
the eminent chemists who are at the head of that society concur 
with us in desiring to publish reports combining the completeness 
of the “ Jahresberichte” with a much greater celerity of appear- 
ance, so that our respective members may have presented to 
them every month an outline of all that has been done in the 
science since the last report. It appears that considerable 
facilities would be afforded for the preparation of such reports 
by a joint action of the two societies, and our friends in Paris 
have expressed the utmost readiness to co-operate with us in 
this important matter. I hope at our next anniversary meeting 
to be able to congratulate the society on the commencement of a 
system of international working.” 
The president proceeded by giving the present number of 
fellows, of the foreign members, the list of the deceased, and 
concluded with a commemorative speech on Thomas Graham. 
The greater part of this speech is to be found in the biographical 
sketch in the first number of NATURE. The following additional 
remarks, however, are worthy to be quoted here. “In 1837 Graham 
was appointed to the chair of chemistry in the newly-founded 
London University, now called University College, London, It 
was here that the young philosopher found adequate scope for 
his abilities. Young men, thirsting for knowledge, crowded to 
his lectures, and in those lectures he explained the principles of 
chemical science with an exactness and clearness never before 
attained. The success of these lectures was not due to eloquence, 
nor to any smoothness of diction, for all such matters Graham 
usually neglected to a degree which in an ordinary person would 
hardly have been excused. He had a truly philosophical method 
which carried away the listener with irresistible force. The 
same exactness of thought, the same logical arrangement of 
matter, in a word, the same purely scientific mind pervades his 
work, the ‘Elements of Chemistry,’ a work which is too well- 
known to chemists all over the world, for it to be necessary 
to speak here of its great merits.” After having sketched the out- 
lines of the most important of Graham’s investigations, the pre- 
sident alluded in the following manner to Graham’s activity as 
Master of the Mint :—‘‘ He remained at University College till 
the year 1855, when he was appointed Master of the Mint, an 
office which Sir John Herschel had recently resigned. His 
illustrious friend Hofmann, from whom I have already freely 
quoted, shall tell how he discharged these responsible duties. 
‘It would be difficult to picture the extensive activity which 
Graham exercised in the high office entrusted to him. The new 
master of the mint showed a circumspection, a mastery of details, 
an amount of industry and energy, and, when occasion required, 
an impartial severity, which astonished every one, more 
especially some of the officials of the mint. Such require- 
ments had not hitherto been made, nor such control exer- 
cised. A strong resistance was made to the plans of 
innovation and alteration of the new master.’ The author 
of these lines, Hofmann, at that time held an office in connection 
with the Mint, and was therefore witness of Graham’s struggles 
in his new position. It was years before he gained a complete 
victory, and before he was able to return to his favourite study. 
But at last this longed-for period came, and a series of happy 
years followed. Not an instant was lost. A convenient labora- 
tory was fitted up in the official residence of the Master of the 
Mint, whose handsome rooms the simple and independent man 
never occupied, and there his old labours were resumed with 
greater zeal than ever. Some of Graham’s most beautiful re- 
searches date from this period. They sprang from the pure love 
of science. Graham needed to earn no name or position. Both 
had long been his undisputed property. But the same earnest 
desire to study nature, which in early youth had induced him to 
bear without murmurs the greatest privations and the bitterest 
sorrows, still animated him and armed him against the new dan- 
gers which threatened his scientific labours from the splendour of 
his official position and the distractions which it entailed on 
him.” ‘The proceedings of the meeting terminated with a vote of 
thanks to the president for the able and effective manner in 
which he had discharged his official duties during the past 
year. 
Geological Society, March 23.—Warington W. Smyth, 
F.R.S., Vice-President, in the chair. Mr. F. A. Potter, B.Sc., 
Assoc. Royal School of Mines, Cromford, Derbyshire, was 
elected a Fellow of the Society. The following communications 
