anniversjlIit address. XXXIX 



time to making experiments on the strength of iron, stone, and wood, 

 and gave to the world the formulce for solid and hollow pillars of 

 iron, which have been adopted in England and the Continent, and 

 which are now the basis of calculation for all structures made of that 

 metal. Mr. Hodgkinson was probably the most laborious and care- 

 ful experimenter that has ever devoted himself to the study of the 

 laws which regulate the strength of materials ; and all his great 

 labours were given to the investigation of truth for its own sake, 

 without any pecuniary returns, but at a considerable loss to himself. 

 He was for some years President of the Manchester Literary and 

 Philosophical Society, in whose Memoirs most of his papers appeared. 

 Although he did not wiite much on geology, he was warmly attached 

 to the science, and possessed a good collection of coal-measure plants, 

 which he delighted in showing to his friends. In private life his 

 simple habits and kindly disposition endeared him to a large circle 

 of acquaintances, who have sustained a loss which will not soon be 

 replaced. 



Thomas "William Atkin^son became a Fellow of this Society in 

 1859, on his return from the long wanderings in Asiatic Russia, 

 described in his * Travels in Siberia.' Originally an architect, he 

 added high qualifications as an artist to the energy and endurance 

 that distinguished hira as a traveller. It may, however, be regretted 

 that his connection with our Society had not commenced before rather 

 than after his travels, destined as he was to visit so many of the 

 most interesting districts of the Altai and of the chains bordering on 

 the Kirghiz Steppe. 



Sir Chaeles Fellows was born in 1799, and became well known 

 to the public on producing, in 1838, the Journal of his * Excursions 

 in Asia Minor,' memorable for the discoveries of ancient buildings in 

 the valley of the Lycian Xanthus. He subsequently pubhshed 

 several other works on the antiquities of the same region, in the 

 exploration of which he was associated with Edward Forbes, Captain 

 Graves, and Captain Spratt. Sir Charles resided latterly in the Isle 

 of Wight, where he took a leading part in the question of the estab- 

 lishment of a local museum, geological and antiquarian, at Caris- 

 brook Castle. 



M. L. A. Necker de Satjsstjre, elected in 1808 a Foreign Member 

 of the Society, was at one time Professor of Mineralogy at Geneva ; 

 and although for the last twenty years he had buried himself in close 

 retirement at Portree in the Isle of Skye, where he died, was in the 

 earlier part of his hfe an active contributor to scientific literature. 

 In our owTi volumes he published papers '' On a probable Cause of 

 certain Earthquakes," and on the geological laws which govern the 

 of which metalliferous deposits with regard to the rock-formations 

 position of the crust of the earth is formed. 



His ' Travels in Scotland,' published in Paris in 1821, record his 

 observations made in 1806, 1807, 1808, in the scientific part of which 



