THE PRESIDE^'t's ADDRESS. 177 



ventilating the houses of parliament, his stoves for obtaining 

 gas from oil, and their proposed ax^i^lication to Kght-houses, &e. 

 By his social qualities, and as a man of science, he was an honoiir 

 to his native county. 



John Edward Gray, F.E.S., who died in March last, at the 

 British Museum, in his 76th year, was one of our Honorary 

 Members, but not of this county. At the age of 21 years, he 

 published, in his father's name, ''Natural Arrangement of British 

 Plants." At 24, he was appointed an assistant in the British 

 Museum, and in 1840 Keeper of its Zoological Collection. He 

 was an active promoter of many societies having more or less 

 relations with the department of natural history in which his 

 duties lay, and a contributor to their transactions. He was 

 made a doctor of philosophy by the University of Munich for 

 having formed the largest zoological collection in Europe. 



Fortunately, it is my privilege to-day to be able to turn from 

 these sad reflections on the blanks of our muster-roll to others 

 that are gratifying to this Society. Foremost among them is 

 the fact that the Geological Society of London, in February last, 

 awarded its Murchison Medal to a Cornishman who foiu' years 

 since filled this chair with such energy and efficiency as will not 

 readily be forgotten. The award is "to William Jory Hen wood, 

 in recognition of his long-continued and valuable researches on 

 subterranean temperature, and on the phenomena of mineral 

 veins in Cornwall, South America and India." Duidng fifty of his 

 three score years and ten our ex-president has prosecuted such 

 researches, or has been carrying an account of them through the 

 press. I am sure that you will all unite with me in congratulating 

 him on this flattering recognition of his merits by the most 

 competent judges in the land. 



There was fiu'ther pleasure of this kind in store for us ; for in 

 the following month the Eoyal Society of Edinbui-gh awarded 

 theNeill Prize for the terminal period of 1871-4 to C "W. Peach, 

 late controller of the Customs at Wick, for his contributions to 

 Scottish Zoology and Geology, and for his recent contributions 

 to Fossil Botany. Mr. Peach, though, I believe, not a native of 

 Cornwall, is one of our Corresponding Members, and truly a 

 Cornish child of science. It was while stationed in this County, 

 nearly haK a centxuy since, that his first studies in the sciences 

 in which he has excelled were made ; and to this Institution and 



C 



