22 Presidenfs Address. [Feb. 



embarrassment and difficulty, in which the Society was consequently placed. 

 I will not again dwell upon this very disagreeable topic. The lapse of an- 

 other year has furnished me with almost nothing to communicate to you in 

 respect of it ; but nevertheless, I hope I am not over-sanguine in thinking 

 that I have lately seen indicia of a disposition in the Government to recog- 

 nize its responsibilities to our Society. And, indeed, I feel convinced that the 

 Grovernor- General in Council needs only to become really acquamted with the 

 nature of the Society's claim, to perceive the justice of affording the rehef 

 which we ask. 



We have had the misfortune this year to lose by death several of our 

 most eminent and valuable members. 



The tragic event which deprived us of Mr. Justice Norman will ever be 

 remembered with sadness by us all. He had in almost an unexampled degree 

 endeared himself to every one by his kindly disposition, by his frank and 

 genial bearing. But it was to his intimate personal friends that the sterling 

 worth of the man stood revealed in its fulness. I knew him too well to 

 trust myself to dwell upon this theme, and there are those now present, I am 

 sure, who will feel with me that silence with regard to it, may be a more 

 eloquent tribute in memoriam than the best chosen words. Mr. Norman was 

 elected a member of our Society in 1863 ; and had a seat in the Council in 

 1868, and following years. In 1866 he was appointed by the Governor-General 

 in Council one of the trustees of the Indian Museum. His attainments in the 

 department of natm^al science, and in particular his knowledge of botany, 

 were considerable ; and he was always a zealous supporter of our Society. 



Archdeacon Pratt, whose sudden and melancholy death occurred almost 

 at the very close of the year under review, took his degree at Cambridge in 

 1833, when he obtained the high place of third Wrangler m the Mathemati- 

 cal Tripos. It is remarkable that his College, Caius, one of the smaller Col- 

 leges of the University, also produced the senior wrangler of the year, namely, 

 EUice, a man of conspicuous ability, whose career of distinction was unfor- 

 tunately cut short by death at an early age. Bowstead, Kemplay, Cartmell, 

 Hildyard, now well known names, were among the leading men of the 

 tripos. Mr. Pratt became Fellow of his College, and for a time resided in the 

 University. He wrote the text book, which was for many years afterwards 

 very familiar to all competitors for Mathematical honors, under the name of 

 ' Pratt's Mechanical Philosophy.' Although this book was in its best parts 

 a translation and contained little, if any, strictly original matter, its appear- 

 ance in fact marked an era in the course of mathematical teaching and study 

 at Cambridge, because it was in a great measure the means of introducing 

 there the methods, and the lucid reasoning of the French philosophers. A 

 very few years subsequently, the works of the French writers themselves came 

 to be resorted to in the original as text-books by the higher class of students. 

 Mr. Pratt coir njf need bis service in India so long ago as 1838 ; and fortunately 



