1880.] 



President's Address. 



81 



liberality of individuals, are now growing up among the special 

 societies. 



I am glad to record the fact that, upon the recommendation of 

 men of science, Her Majesty has been pleased to giant pensions on the 

 Civil List to the widows of two of our late Fellows, viz., to Mrs. 

 John Allan Broun and to Mrs. Clifford. 



Last year two volumes containing a collection of the late Professor 

 Clifford's general lectures and essays were brought out. It is hoped 

 that during the present winter a collection of his mathematical papers 

 will be published. The contributions to science by the late Pro- 

 fessor Rankine have recently been placed in the hands of the public. 

 While very sensible of the obligations under which the scientific 

 world is placed by these posthumous publications, I cannot refrain 

 from alluding to our obligations, even greater if possible, to those 

 who during their lifetime are willing to re-issue their own scientific 

 memoirs, and to give us thereby not only the convenience of ready 

 access, but also the advantage of their own subsequent reflections 

 on the subjects of which they have treated. And at this moment I 

 desire to mention more particularly the mathematical and physical 

 papers of our Senior Secretary, Professor G. G. Stokes ; and, while 

 expressing our gratitude for the volume which has already appeared, 

 I would express also our sincere hope that another instalment from the 

 same source may shortly follow. 



Among the subjects which at one period of the last session of Par- 

 liament engaged the attention of the Government was that of the law 

 relating to vaccination ; and a Bill was introduced intended to remove 

 some of the practical difficulties in carrying out the existing law. 

 While fully admitting the difficulties in question, the remedy proposed 

 appeared to trench so closely upon the application at least of a scien- 

 tific principle, and at the same time to be so important in its practical 

 aspect, that I ventured (although the Council was not sitting) to con- 

 sult the Presidents of the Colleges of Physicians and of Surgeons, and 

 that of the Medical Council, about addressing the Government on the 

 subject. This resulted in a joint deputation to the President of the 

 Local Government Board, in which I took part as President of the 

 Royal Society. The Council on my reporting the matter to them 

 at their first meeting after the recess, expressed their approval. The 

 Bill in question was withdrawn. 



The Royal Commission on Accidents in Coal Mines, the appointment 

 of which I mentioned in my address of last year, have been occupied 

 principally in bringing together a body of valuable evidence on the 

 causes and prevention of accidents in mines generally. The Com- 

 mission have also visited a number of mines in which serious accidents 

 by explosion have taken place, or in which certain phenomena con- 

 nected with the occurrence of fire-damp were to be studied. They 



