xiv 



the ingenious methods devised hy the author for the eHmination 

 of error, together with tables, plans, and engravings of the instruments 

 eraploj^ed. For this work, and the long series of operations on which 

 it was founded, the Royal Astronomical Society awarded their testi- 

 monial (equivalent to a medal) to Colonel Everest. " The Great Meri- 

 dional Arc of India," said Sir John Herschel in presenting the testimonial, 

 " is a trophy of which any nation, or any government of the world have 

 reason to he proud, and will he one of the most enduring m^onuments of 

 their power and enlightened regard for the progress of human knowledge." 



The Asiatic Society of Bengal, on completion of the Survey, elected 

 Lieut. -Col. Everest one of their Honorary Members, with an appreciative 

 eulogium of his scientific services. He was a Fellow of the Astronomical 

 and of the Royal Asiatic and the Geographical Societies. Of the latter he 

 was a member of Council, and filled the office of Vice-President. He was 

 knighted and made C.B. in 1861. His scientific writings are comprised in 

 the two works above mentioned, in papers on subjects connected with sur- 

 veying published in * Asiatic Researches' and in the 'Memoirs' of the 

 Astronomical Society, and in a letter on certain computation errors dis- 

 covered in the logarithm tables of the Great Survey, printed in the ' Pro- 

 ceedings' of the Royal Society. 



In 1863-65, Sir George Everest served on the Council of the Royal 

 Society. He died in London, December 1, 1866. His name having been 

 given to one of the highest summits of the Himalayan range, will long be 

 remembered in India. 



John Goodsir, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Edinburgh 

 from 1846 to 1867, was born in the year 1814, at Anstruther in Fife, in 

 which county his father and grandfather were well known and. much re- 

 spected medical practitioners. 



When little more than a boy he was sent as a student of arts to the Uni- 

 versity of St. Andrews, where he passed through the curriculum, but, as 

 was the custom at that time, without taking his degree. At this early 

 period of his life he was fond of the study of metaphysics, and imbibed the 

 doctrines of Coleridge, which indeed gave a colour to the whole of his sub- 

 sequent thoughts and speculations. 



Being destined to follow the medical profession, he was apprenticed to 

 Mr. Robert Nasmyth, the eminent Dentist in Edinburgh, and during his 

 apprenticeship pursued his medical studies in the University and Royal 

 Infirmary in that city. His anatomical teacher was Dr. Knox, and in his 

 practical rooms he made the acquaintance of Edward Forbes, which soon 

 ripened into friendship. For Forbes and Goodsir had tastes in common ; 

 they both took an active interest in watching the habits and tracing out the 

 structure of animals, and their conjoint researches added several new mem- 

 bers to the British fauna. 



When he had obtained the Licence of the Edinburgh College of Sar- 



