1889.] 



President's A ddress. 



453 



rank among the men of science of our day. He was educated as an 

 army surgeon ; but the bent of his mind led him to scientific investi- 

 gation, and he became one of the most eminent of physiologists as 

 well as the most distinguished ophthalmologist of his day. He con- 

 tributed powerfully to the advance, not only of ophthalmology, but 

 also of general physiological science ; for on whatever physiological 

 subject he touched he left his mark, bringing as he did to bear on it 

 an acute and original mind, thoroughly trained in physical and 

 chemical principles, and a knowledge of the advances made by the 

 foremost among his scientific contemporaries. 



There is one whose name, though he was not a Fellow, I cannot 

 pass by in silence on the present occasion. I refer to Thomas Jodrell 

 Phillips Jodrell, who died early in September, in his eighty-second 

 year. About the time of the publication of the reports of the Duke 

 of Devonshire's Commission, the subject of the endowment of research 

 was much talked of, and Mr. Jodrell placed the sum of £6,000 in the 

 hands of the Society for the purpose of making an experiment to see 

 how far the progress of science might be promoted by enabling persons 

 to engage in research who might not otherwise be in a condition to 

 do so. But before any scheme for the purpose was matured, the 

 Government Grant for the promotion of scientific research was 

 started, under the administration of Lord John Russell, then Prime 

 Minister. This rendered it superfluous to carry out Mr. Jodrell' s 

 original intention, but he still left the money in the hands of the 

 Society, directing that, subject to any appropriation of the money 

 that he might make, with the approval of the Royal Society, during 

 his lifetime, the capital should immediately upon his death be incor- 

 porated with the Donation Fund, and that in the meantime the 

 income thereof should be received by the Royal Society. Of the 

 capital, £1,000 was several years ago assigned to a fund for the 

 reduction of the annual payments to be made by future Fellows, and 

 the remaining £5,000 has now of course been added to the Wollaston 

 Donation Fund. By the Fee Reduction Fund the annual payment 

 of ordinary Fellows elected subsequently to the time of the change 

 was made £3 instead of £4, and the entrance fee abolished. As 

 to the Donation Fund, a very wide discretion was, by the terms 

 of the original foundation, left in the hands of the Council as 

 to the way in which they should employ it in the interest of 

 science. 



Since the Croonian Foundation for lectures was put on its present 

 footing, it has been made the means of securing for us. the advantage 

 of a lecture delivered before the Society by distinguished foreign men 

 of science. In the present year our Foreign Member M. Pasteur was 

 invited to deliver the lecture. Unfortunately .the state of his health 

 would not allow him to deliver it himself, but at one time he hoped 



