1871.] 



President's Address. 



49 



The President then addressed the Society as follows : — 



Gentlemen - , 



Br the publication of Volume Y. of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers, 

 the alphabetical list of titles according to authors' names is brought 

 down to the letters T I Z. The remainder of the series, with the supple- 

 mentary matter, will fill one more volume, thus making six volumes for the 

 completion of this part of the work. The preparation of Yolume YI. is in 

 a forward state, some sheets are printed, and its publication may be con- 

 fidently looked for before our next Anniversary. 



"We have to regret that, in consequence of Dr. Cams having been for 

 some time incapacitated by illness, but little progress has been made this 

 year with the ' Index Renim.' 



We have lost this year three distinguished Fellows of our Society, — Sir 

 John Herschel, Mr. Babbage, and Sir Roderick Murchison. Of the first- 

 named, and most illustrious, Sir John Herschel, you might well expect 

 from me a much more than ordinary notice ; but, happily, such a notice 

 (at once far more worthy of the occasion than any thing which I could have 

 been competent to furnish, and more full than could have fallen within the 

 limits of an Anniversary Address) will be in your hands within a few days 

 in our Obituary Notices. I would only add my own most warm and cor- 

 dial assent to every part thereof which falls within my capability of judg- 

 ment. The deaths of Mr. Babbage and of Sir Roderick Murchison are more 

 recent ; but we maybe sure that the care of our excellent senior Secretary 

 will, at the proper time, supply suitable obituary notices of their scientific 

 achievements, — perhaps, in the case of Mr. Babbage, obtaining such a 

 notice from some eminently qualified member of the great University to 

 which he belonged. All these three gentlemen were of advanced age, and 

 the health of all three had been failing for a more or less considerable in- 

 terval ; yet it is comparatively but a short time since the last departed 

 (Sir Roderick Murchison) still displayed such an energetic and vigorous ac- 

 tivity as will make his loss severely felt, most especially by the Royal 

 Geographical Society, from whom and from the Geological Society large 

 and worthy notices may doubtless be expected in their respective obituaries ; 

 while our own obituary may contain such a brief but valuable statement of 

 the wider bearings of his geological labours as may still come appro- 

 priately from the Royal Society. It might be an indulgence to myself, but 

 perhaps scarcely appropriate from this Chair, if, in speaking of Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, I were to permit myself to advert to our long, joint, and 

 friendly labours together at the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science. 



By the munificence of one of our Fellows, Mr. John Peter Gassiof, 

 the Kew Observatory has taken its place amongst the permanent in- 



VOL. XX. E 



