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of Anatomy at Pavia in the twenty-second year of his age, and for 

 the last half-century he has been placed by the common consent of 

 his countrymen at the head of their anatomists and surgeons. He 

 was the author of magnificent and classical works on " The Organs of 

 Hearing and Smell," k ' On the Nerves," " On the principal Diseases 

 of the Eye," " On Aneurism," " On Hernia," with Memoirs on many 

 other subjects of physiology and practical surgery. Fie had ac- 

 cumulated a handsome fortune by the practice of his profession, 

 and had collected in his palace at Pavia a considerable number of 

 works of art, where he lived for the latter years of his life, sur- 

 rounded by his pupils, reverenced by his countrymen, and in the 

 enjoyment and contemplation of that brilliant reputation, the full 

 development of which a great man can rarely live to witness. 



In thus directing your attention, Gentlemen, to those distinguished 

 Members of the Royal Society, who, unhappily for the interests of 

 science, have been taken from us during the last year, there is one 

 name remaining which I cannot notice without feelings of the most 

 painful embarrassment. To what class shall I, or can I refer it ; 

 to the living or to the dead ? Though my fears tend too strongly 

 to make me decide upon the choice of the latter, yet I would fain 

 indulge in the hope which is still afforded by the -uncertainty, 

 mournful though it be, which hangs over the fate of the gallant and 

 adventurous Captain Ross. The object of his voyage, as is well 

 known to you, was the solution of a nautical problem of the greatest 

 interest and difficulty, — the discovery of a north-west passage. It is 

 a problem which more than any other excited and baffled the adven- 

 turous spirit of our most daring seamen of the age of Elizabeth; and 

 when subsequently resumed, chiefly upon the authority of the in- 

 genious speculations of Dailies Barrington, a distinguished Member 

 of this Society, and of others of later date, the first attempt of Cap- 

 tain Ross himself and the memorable voyage of Parry, as well as the 

 journey of Franklin, have shown how visionary were all hopes of its 

 successful solution for the purposes of commerce, however interest- 

 ing it might be for those of science. It was the failure of the 

 first voyage of Captain Ross, and the apparent censure which he 

 conceived rested upon him, in consequence of the greater success of 

 the attempt of his immediate successor in this enterprise, which op- 

 pressed his high and manly spirit, and made him seek, with the 

 greatest possible earnestness, for an opportunity of vindicating his 

 professional character. With the assistance of some of his friends he 

 planned another voyage, and nearly three years ago he proceeded 

 to put it into execution. It is to dispel the mystery attendant upon 

 that voyage, of which no tidings have been yet received, and to re- 

 lieve the misery under which the friends and relations of Captain 

 Ross and his gallant crew are lingering, that a vessel is now pre- 

 paring, under the command of an able and experienced officer, to 

 pursue the track which he probably followed. I have consented, at 

 the request of the Royal Geographical Society, to be placed at the 

 head of the Committee which has been formed for the aid and 



