95 



Cambridge, was in early life a schoolfellow of Lord Nelson, of whose 

 talents or character, however, he retained no very vivid impressions : 

 he became a Member of the University in 1777, and when he took 

 his degree in 1781 he was fourth Wrangler and first Smith's Prize- 

 man, a discrepancy in the results of two similar examinations, which 

 is said to have led to the adoption of some regulations prevent- 

 ing their recurrence in future. In the year 1800 he became one 

 of the public tutors of his college, in conjunction with its pre- 

 sent venerable and distinguished master, and secured, in a very 

 uncommon degree, the respect and love of his pupils, by his skill 

 and knowledge as a teacher, and by his kind and vigilant attention 

 to their interests: he quitted the tuition in 1810, and for the re- 

 mainder of his life he devoted himself, almost exclusively, to the 

 cultivation of practical and theoretical astronomy, having succeeded 

 to Mr. Ludlam in the management of the observatory which is 

 placed over one of the interior gateways of the college. He possessed 

 a most accurate knowledge of the theory and use of astronomical 

 instruments, and was a most scrupulous and skilful observer; and he 

 is known to have left behind a very large mass of observations, par- 

 ticularly of occultations, most carefully detailed and recorded. Mr. 

 Catton was a man of very courteous manners and most amiable 

 character, and possessed of a very extensive acquaintance both with 

 literature and science. He died in the month of January last, in the 

 eightieth year of his age, deeply regretted by the members of the 

 college in which he had passed the greatest part of his life. 



Mr. Henry Earle, one of the Senior Surgeons of St. Bartholomew's 

 Hospital, was the son of one very eminent surgeon, Sir James Earle, 

 and the grandson of another, Mr. Percival Pott. He was the author 

 of many valuable articles in different medical journals, and likewise 

 of two papers in our Transactions ; one detailing the result of a 

 very novel and difficult surgical operation, and the other on the 

 mechanism of the spine, which were published in 1822 and 1823. 

 Mr. Earle was considered to be one of the most skilful and scien- 

 tific surgeons of his age, and was justly esteemed by his professional 

 and other friends not merely for his great acquirements, but for his 

 kindness of heart and upright and honourable character. 



John Lloyd Williams, formerly British resident at Benares, was 

 the author of three short papers in our Transactions in the year 

 1793 ; two of them upon the method of making ice at Benares, by 

 means of extremely porous and shallow evaporating pans of unglazed 

 earthenware, placed upon dry straw or sugar-cane ; and the last fur- 

 nishing additional descriptions of the great quadrants and gnomon 

 in the observatory at Benares, which had been described in a paper 

 in our Transactions in 1777 by Sir Robert Barker. 



The Foreign Members whom the Society has lost during the last 

 year, are Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, of Boston, in America ; Messieurs 

 Dulong and Frederic Cuvier, of Paris ; and Dr. Martin van Marum, 

 of Haarlem. 



Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts 

 in America, was born at Salem, in the same State, in 1773 : he was 



