359 



His death, which took place on the 20th of January last, was the 

 result of an accident. Being engaged at the College of Surgeons 

 on seme" scientific business, he fell down a flight of steps, which led 

 to the rupture of an artery, and terminated his life at the early age of 

 forty-nine, not however without leaving behind a name which will 

 occupy a prominent place in the history of the science of the nine- 

 teenth century. 



Hugh Edwin Strickland, Esq., was descended from an ancient 

 Baronet family in Yorkshire, one of whose ancestors was Lord 

 Strickland in the Protectorate of Cromwell. From early life 

 Mr. Strickland was a zealous student of Natural History, and in 

 consequence of his proficiency in all its branches, but particularly in 

 Ornithology and Geology, was appointed to succeed Dr. Buckland 

 as Reader in Geology at the University of Oxford, and was subse- 

 quently elected President of the Ashmolean Museum. Besides 

 frequent and valuable zoological, botanical, and geological contribu- 

 tions to periodical publications, Mr. Strickland obtained great cele- 

 brity by the publication of an elaborate volume on the Extinct Dodo, 

 which he wrote in conjunction with Dr. Melville. Mr. Strickland 

 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1852. 



His death was most melancholy. He left Hull, where he had been 

 attending the Meeting of the British Association in September last, 

 to visit an interesting geological locality, on the line of railway be- 

 tween Retford and Gainsborough. Here, while engaged in taking 

 a sketch, and imprudently standing on the railway, he was run down 

 by an express train, and in an instant was a mangled corpse. 



FRAN901S Arago was bom on February 26th, 1786, at Estagal near 

 Perpignan, in the department of the Oriental Pyrenees. His father 

 had only a moderate patrimony, and was Treasurer of the Mint at 

 Perpignan. Being intended for the legal profession, or some public 

 office, the early education he received was entirely literary, but 

 having a predilection to become an officer in the Artillery, he entered 

 himself at the Polytechnic School at Paris, and with but little aid 

 from masters, instructed himself from the works of Euler, Lagrange, 

 and Laplace, instead of resorting to the manuals where science is 

 retailed at second-hand. In 1803, when he was eighteen years of 

 age, he was received by the younger Monge at Toulouse, and a 

 year afterwards, on account of the superiority of his scientific attain- 

 ments to the rest of his companions, he was recommended by the 

 elder Monge to the Observatory at Paris. This occasioned a change 

 in his original destination, and opened for him a career far more 

 useful to science and mankind. Whilst in the capacity of observer 

 at this national establishment, he occupied himself with researches 

 of the greatest value to astronomy and physics. 



The death of the astronomer Mechain had interrupted the measure- 

 ment of the meridian of France, undertaken to determine the figure 

 of the earth, and to establish, on a scientific basis, the unit of the 

 decimal system of measures adopted by the National Convention. 



26* 



