1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1909, 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 



Prof. William Johnson Sollas, LL.D., Sc.D., E.R.S. 



During the past year we have suffered heavily under the visi- 

 tation of death. We mourn the loss of three past Presidents, 

 three Foreign Members, and, besides other aged and distinguished 

 friends aDd colleagues, we have especially to lament several of our 

 younger Fellows cut off untimely in the fulness of their powers. 



Henry Clifton Sorby (1826-1908). — As if by a kind of compen- 

 sation for the supineness of those in high places, Science has always 

 been distinguished in this country, more than others, by the number 

 and brilliance of its amateurs, and among these one of the most 

 brilliant was Henry Clifton Sorby. 



His family on the father's side had long given proof of unusual 

 ability, his grandfather was Master Cutler of the Cutlers' Company, 

 and an earlier ancestor, who died in 1628, was the first of the 

 long line of Master Cutlers. If from his father he inherited his 

 shrewd good sense and sound judgement, it was to his mother — 

 Amelia Lambert — that he owed much of his intellectual strength 

 and alertness. 



He was born on May 10th, 1826, at Woodhouse, near Sheffield. 

 From his earliest days his tendency was towards scientific studies, 

 and this he tells us was strengthened by a book called ' Readings in 

 Science,' which he received as a prize for arithmetic when attending 

 the Sheffield Collegiate School. 



On leaving school he received instruction from a private tutor, 

 the Rev. Walter Michel, a mathematician, who had enjoyed the 

 advantage of a medical training, and consequently possessed a good 

 knowledge of chemistry and anatomy. He will be well known to 

 some Fellows of the Society as the author of a work on Crystallo- 

 graphy, which appeared in Orr's ' Circle of the Sciences.' The 

 relations of pupil and tutor were evidently cordia] : as Sorby 

 expresses it, ' we worked together ' not only at mathematics, but also 

 at chemistry and anatomy. On the removal of his tutor, Sorby 

 continued his studies alone, paying particular attention to optics. 

 He also found time for practice in water-colour drawing and acquired 

 considerable skill, as may be seen from the carefully finished studies 

 of clouds, which he painted when investigating their forms on board 

 his yacht the Glimpse. 



