Presidents Address. 21 



terminated six months thereafter with his death. Thus early 

 closed the life of Edward Forbes, of whom it was no exaggeration 

 to say that his was a most original, versatile, and brilliant in- 

 tellect of the highest order. His early death was an irreparable 

 loss to the whole scientific world of the period. 



The President of the Belfast Queen's College (Rev. Dr. 

 Hamilton) said that the duty which he had been asked to dis- 

 charge that night was one that was exceedingly congenial to 

 him. His only regret was that it had not fallen into hands 

 more able to do it justice. Before proceeding to formally move 

 the vote of thanks with which he had been entrusted, he could 

 not deny himself the pleasure of expressing his thanks to the 

 learned President of that Society for the address with which he 

 had just favoured them. He learned that it was not the custom 

 to move formally a vote of thanks for such an address ; but 

 speaking for himself — and he was perfectly sure that he was also 

 speaking for them — he must say that he had seldom listened 

 to a more interesting or complete paper of the kind than that 

 which his friend Mr. Patterson had just read to them. That 

 account of the trinity of worthies whose lives he had brought 

 before them was intensely gratifying. He had only one regret 

 about it, and it was that it did not deal at a greater length with 

 the biography of the second of the two gentlemen to whom he 

 had alluded — viz., Mr. Robert Patterson — but he supposed they 

 all understood the reason why he had passed over that part of 

 the subject so briefly. He hoped, however, that at some other 

 meeting, or in some other way, a fuller account of Mr. Patterson's 

 life might be given, because if there was one to whom that 

 Society and the Museum owed a debt of gratitude it certainly 

 was to the father of the learned President of the Belfast Natural 

 History and Philosophical Society. His duty, however, was to 

 move that the best thanks of that Society be given to the donors 

 of the gifts, a list of which had been read to them by Mr. Young. 

 It was very satisfactory to find that the Museum still maintained 

 its popularity, and that so large a portion of the people of 

 Belfast were so thoughtful as to remember it when they had 



