ANNIVEKSAEY ADDEESS OP THE PRESIDENT. 49 



Daniel Adamson, of The Towers, Didsbiiry, Manchester, who 

 died 13th January, 1890, was a native of Sheldon in Durham, 

 where he was born in 1818. His early life as an engineer was 

 passed on the Stockton and Darlington Railway, on which he held 

 various posts until 1850. In 1851 he established himself in Man- 

 chester as an iron-founder, engineer, and boiler-maker, and from 

 that time brought out a series of improvements in iron and steel- 

 making, and in machinery. Some of his most remarkable inven- 

 tions were connected with compound engines. He patented and 

 brought out a triple expansion engine as long ago as 1861, and 

 a quadruple engine in 1872. Ho is, however, perhaps better known 

 for the support he gave to the Manchester Ship Canal, a scheme 

 that, in great measure by his aid, was developed into a practical 

 undertaking. 



Mr. Adamson joined the Geological Society in 1875. He was 

 President of the Iron and Steel Institute from 1887 till 1889. 



Heinrich von Dechen, the N^estor of German geologists, as he has 

 been aptly termed by Prof. P. v. Romer, passed away from the world 

 he had so long adorned on Pebruary 15th, 1889. He was born 

 March 25th, 1800, and had consequently nearly completed his 89th 

 year. As he was elected a Poreign Member of this Society in 1827, 

 he had been one of our body in that capacity for the unprecedented 

 period of sixty-two years. Por twenty-one years after his election 

 no Poreign Member was brought into our list who survives him. 



H. V. Dechen came of a family ennobled in 1684 and resident in 

 Prussia' for more than two centuries. He was born in Berlin, where 

 his father occupied a high official post, and he passed through the 

 usual course of education in the gymnasium and university of that 

 city. At the university he attended the lectures of Prof. Weiss, 

 the well-known mineralogist, and here he made the acquaintance of 

 Leopold V. Buch, who exercised much influence on v. Dechen's sub- 

 sequent career. On leaving the university in 1819 v. Dechen 

 entered upon the study of mining in Bochum and Essen, and was 

 in 1820 placed on the staff of the Mining Department of the 

 Prussian State. In this department he continued throughout his 

 service, which terminated in 1864. He was appointed " Oberberg- 

 amtsassessor " in Bonn in 1828, but transferred to Berlin as " Ober- 

 bergrath'' in 1831. Shortly afterwards he received the honorary 

 degree of Ph.D. from the University of Bonn, and from 1834 to 1841, 

 in addition to his official duties, he gave lectures in the Berlin Uni- 



