296 Obituary. 



selection of Professor M'Coy to fill a chair in the University of 

 Melbourne left a vacancy in the Queen's College, Belfast, which 

 Professor Thomson was appointed to fill. The original work carried 

 on by him while filling these positions was so great and valuable 

 that he rapidly rose to occupy a leading position among the 

 naturalists of Europe, and in 1868 he was chosen by the British 

 Government to accompany a scientific expedition which explored the 

 bed of the Atlantic. His well-known work, The Depths of the Sea, 

 was a description of the expedition and its results. 



Professor Thomson next occupied the chair of natural history in 

 Edinburgh, and there carried on his original, researches with still 

 greater zeal. In 1872 he was selected to accompany the " Challenger" 

 expedition in the capacity of chief of the scientific staff. Three and 

 a half years were spent in an expedition on a grander and more 

 successful scale than the world had previously seen. In every 

 quarter of the globe the depths of the seas were carefully examined, 

 and an enormous collection of specimens was gathered. 



It was during the stay of the " Challenger" in Melbourne that 

 Professor Thomson became an honorary member of this Society. 



On the return of the expedition to England, Professor Thomson 

 commenced the enormous task of editing the report. He had 

 completed the two introductory volumes, and made a beginning of 

 the detailed account, when, in 1879, an attack of paralysis forced him 

 to desist, and leave the work in other hands. His health declined 

 for some time, and at last, in March, 1882, a third attack of 

 paralysis ended, at the age of fifty-three, one of the most distin- 

 guished careers of our time. 



Professor Thomson was in 1876 knighted, as a testimony to the 

 the value of his scientific services. 



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