40 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



Fellows elected since 



Ayrton, Prof. William Edward. 



Bates, Henry Walter. 



Bristowe, John Syer, M.D., 



F.R.C.P. 

 Christie, William Henry Mahoney, 



M.A. 



Dickie, Prof. George, A.M., M.D., 

 F.L.S. 



Gladstone, Right Hon. William 



Ewart, D.C.L. 

 Grant-Duff, Right Hon. Mount- 



stuart Elphinstone. 

 Kempe, Alfred Bray, B.A. 



the last Anniversary. 



Macalister, Prof. Alexander, M.D., 



Sec. R.LA. 

 McLeod, Prof. Herbert, F.I.C., 



F.C.S. 

 Phillips, John Arthur. 

 Preece, William Henry, C.E. 

 Samuelson, Bernhard, M.I. C.E. 

 Stoney, Bindon Blood, M.A., 



M.I.C.E. 

 Traqnair, Ramsay H., M.D. 

 Watson, Rev. Henry William, 



M.A. 



Wright, Charles R. Alder, D.Sc. 



On the Foreign List. 

 Daubree, Gabriel Auguste. 

 Marignac, Jean Charles Galissard de. 

 Nageli, Carl. 

 Weierstrass, Carl. 



The President then addressed the Society as follows : — 



On the occasions of our anniversary our first glance is usually retro- 

 spective, in memory of those once among our numbers, but now 

 surviving only in their works. On our home list we have this year 

 lost more than a score of Fellows. On the foreign list we have lost but 

 one ; that loss will however be severely, if not so widely, felt. 



In Michael Chasles mathematicians recognise a geometer of unusual 

 powers, who, having devoted a long life to his favourite study, has left 

 an extensive and characteristic train of researches behind him. But a 

 larger circle of friends recognised in him a great and good man, 

 beloved by all who knew him, and respected beyond the range of his 

 personal acquaintance. As a pure geometer he belonged to a class of 

 mathematicians for which the Academy of Sciences of Paris has long 

 been justly celebrated ; but whose numbers appear liable to a percep- 

 tible fluctuation, perhaps partly owing to the brilliant opportunities 

 and the varied fascinations which modern algebra offers to the student. 

 Eminent in a nation which has always been intolerant of obscurity 

 in Science, he showed in a remarkable degree how much might be 

 elicited through precision of thought and by clearness of exposition 

 from a few well-selected and fertile ideas. Such, for instance, proved 

 to be the consideration of Anharmonic Ratios, the principle of Corre- 

 spondence, and the method of Characteristics. Whether in the latter 

 he had struck a vein so completely out of the range of the analyst, as he 

 himself supposed, may perhaps be still claimed as an open question ; 



