jiogal §ocietj) of Victoria. 



ANSTIVEESAET ADDEESS 



OF 



^Lhz f) xz&xbznt, 



Mr. R. L. J. Ellery, F.R.S., F.R.A.S., Government 



Astronomer. 



(Delivered to the Members of the Royal Society of Victoria, at their 

 Annual Conversazione, held September 27th, 1881.) 



Gentlemen of the Royal Society, 



We meet to-night to commemorate the entrance of our 

 Society on its twenty -fourth year of existence, and, accord- 

 ing to our now time-honoured custom, it is incumbent on 

 me as your President to deliver a brief address on the 

 affairs of the Society and cognate matters ; but first permit 

 me to tender you my thanks for the great honour you have 

 done me by again re-electing me your President. 



Only once or twice, out of the many times I have had to 

 address you on similar occasions to this, has the painful duty 

 devolved upon me of referring to losses from death in our 

 ranks. Still, in the natural course of events, we must 

 expect, as time rolls on, that occasional gaps will occur. But 

 on the present occasion I regret exceedingly that I have to 

 call your attention to the loss by death since we met here 

 last year of no less than five of our members — namely, Sir 

 Redmond Barry, Mr. Alexander Kennedy Smith, Mr. Thomas 

 Higinbotham, Mr. Samuel Patching, and Mr. Frederic Joy 

 Pirani, leaving blanks in our midst it will be difficult to fill 

 up. 



A 



