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The Rev. William Pearson, LL.D., was upwards of twenty- 

 eight years a Fellow of this Society, and well-known for his ardent 

 attachment to practical science. He was born at Whitbeck, in Cum- 

 berland, on the 20th of April, 1767, and was educated at the Hawks- 

 head Grammar-school. Being of an active mechanical turn, he 

 employed himself in early life in constructing a curious astronomical 

 clock ; and at different periods afterwards he made a complete Tel- 

 lurian, a very detailed Planetarium, a Satellitian for showing the 

 motions and periods of Jupiter's satellites, and a complex Orrery. 

 When he became proprietor of the large seminary at East Sheen, 

 near Richmond, he erected an excellent private observatory, and 

 furnished it with so liberal a supply of the best instruments, that he 

 was induced to write a detailed description of them, and thereby 

 produced his principal publication, " Practical Astronomy;" a work 

 for which the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society was 

 awarded him. Besides this, Dr. Pearson also wrote numerous arti- 

 cles for Rees's Cyclopaedia ; and he contributed to the Memoirs of 

 the Royal Astronomical Society, his last paper in those volumes being 

 a Catalogue of 520 stars, made with a three-foot altitude and azi- 

 muth instrument, in the observatory which he had built at his rec- 

 tory at South Kilworth, in Leicestershire. 



Dr. Pearson enjoyed robust health to an advanced period of life, 

 and, after a meritorious and useful career, expired at South Kil-^ 

 worth on the 6th of last September. 



Professor MacCullagh was born in the year 1809. The place 

 of his birth was the townland of Loughlindhuhussey, then pos- 

 sessed by his grandfather, a man of considerable acquirements, and 

 a scholar of some pretensions. . This place is in the parish of 

 Upper Badoney, in the county of Tyrone, about ten miles from 

 Strabane. 



Shortly after his birth, his father removed from the mountain farm 

 he occupied to Strabane, principally that he might have the means 

 of educating his son, it not being possible to do so in the secluded 

 glen in which he lived. In Strabane he was, while very young, 

 placed at the only respectable school at that time in the town. Here 

 his genius soon displayed itself. After school hours he was almost 

 constantly employed in solving mathematical problems ; yet, it is 

 remembered that when Euclid was first put into his hands he was 

 dissatisfied with the task. He was only required to get the solution 

 of a problem by heart, like a copy of verses, and repeat it. There 

 was no attempt made at explanation. This did iiot suit the cha- 

 racter of his mind, which even then could not rest until it thoroughly 

 understood the nature of everything that came before it. For some 

 days he was restless, unhappy and puzzled, wandering about with 

 his Euclid in his hand. In his perplexity he met a neighbour, a 

 working carpenter, a man of cleverness and talent, who, seeing the 

 boy evidently unhappy, was good enough to ask him what was the 

 matter. He immediately told his good-natured friend that he was 

 obliged to get by heart a set of strange words, the meaning of which 



