Minutes of Proceedings. 181 



telescope of extraordinary power, and they consulted the Eoyal Society 

 of London as to the most suitable kind of instrument, and the hest mode 

 of obtaining it, a committee of that Body recommended that the tele- 

 scope should be a Cassegrain reflector ; and the construction of it was 

 entrusted to Mr. Thomas Grubb, with whom was associated in that 

 great work his son Mr. Howard Grubb, whose distinguished merit in 

 continuing and developing the career which his father had so well 

 commenced, the Academy proceeds this evening to recognise. 



" It would be out of place were I to enter into any detailed parti- 

 culars as to the construction and performance of the great Melbourne 

 telescope. Those who may be specially interested in such will find 

 full information in the Memoir by the Rev. Romney Eobinson and 

 Mr. Thomas Grubb in i\LQ Philosophical Transactions ioy: 1869. It will 

 suffice for me to say that its performance has fully realised all antici- 

 pations, and it is generally recognised as a distinguished triumph of 

 mechanical and optical construction applied to the advancement of 

 exact science. 



"As I have already said, this Academy had to deplore some years 

 since the loss of Mr. Thomas Grubb ; but his place in the history of 

 mechanical science has been well supplied, and I shall proceed to no- 

 tice briefly some of the works on which Mr. Howard Grubb has been 

 since that time engaged. 



"The relative merits of reflecting and refracting telescopes have 

 been frequently disputed and critically discussed, and we may fairly 

 consider such to be still an open question which may be determined 

 variously, according to the different dimensions of the instruments and 

 the objects for which they are more specially designed. 



" The subject has been treated of by Mr. Grubb in a valuable 

 Memoir on the great telescopes of the future, and there is probably no 

 person better qualified by varied experience in the construction and 

 use of such instruments to form a trustworthy opinion. 



"Having, in conjunction with his father, brought to successful 

 completion the great Melbourne reflector, Mr, Howard Grubb has 

 since that time constructed the 8-inch refractor now in the Observa- 

 tory of Queen's College, Cork, and which, in the hands of my eminent 

 friend Professor England, may be expected to yield important contri- 

 butions to Science. 



