78 Cambridge Philosophical Society : — 



hand ; and, with an unclouded mind, he prepared himself calmly and 

 humbly for the great change, receiving and giving comfort and 

 support from the thankful hope that the close of his suffering life 

 here was to be the beginning of an endless existence of rest and 

 happiness in another world. He retained to the last, when he knew 

 that his own connexion with earthly things was soon to cease, the 

 unselfish interest which he had ever felt in the pursuits and hap- 

 piness of those he loved. A few words may be allowed about a cha- 

 racter where rare and sterling qualities were combined. His upright, 

 sincere, and honourable nature secured to him general respect. By 

 his intimate friends he was admired for the extent and variety of his 

 information, always communicated readily but without a thought of 

 display, — for his refinement and delicacy of taste and feeling, — for his 

 conversational powers and playful wit ; and he was beloved by them 

 for his generous, amiable disposition, his active and disinterested 

 kindness, and steady affection. And in this manner his high-toned 

 character acquired a moral influence over his contemporaries and 

 juniors, in a degree remarkable in one so early removed." 



IX. Proceedings of Learned Societies, 



CAMBRIDGE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

 [Continued from vol. xxx. p. 378.] 

 October 30, 1865. 

 HE following officers were elected : — 



President .... Rev. W. H. Cookson, D.D. 



fMr. I. Todhunter. 

 Vice-Presidents. < Dr. Paget. 



L Professor Challis. 

 Treasurer .... Rev. W. M. Campion. 



f Professor Cardale Babington. 

 Secretaries . . < Professor Liveing. 

 [Rev. T. G. Bonney. 



New Members f Rev. W. G. Clark. 



lMew Members I Mr R potter> 



of the Council. | t, xt , t -,-, 



J ^Rev. N. M. Ferrers. 



The following communications were made to the Society : — 



By Mr. A. R. Catton— 



1. " On the Synthesis of Formic Acid." 



2. " On the possibility of accounting for the double refraction of 

 Light by the vibrations of a continuous elastic medium kept in a state 

 of constraint by the action of the material molecules. " 



By Professor Cayley — 



3. " A new Theorem on the Equilibrium of four Forces acting 

 on a solid Body." 



Defining the " moment of two lines " as the product of the short- 

 est distance of the two lines into the sine of their inclination, then, 

 if four forces acting along the lines 1, 2, 3, 4 respectively are in 

 equilibrium, the lines must, as is known (Mobius), be four genera- 

 ting lines of an hyperboloid ; and if 12 denote the moment of the lines 



T 



