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retirement Sir George received a pension from the Government, and 

 resided close to Greenwich Park, and not far from the scene of his 

 former labonrs. Here, on his ninetieth birthday, he held his last 

 reception. It was attended by a numerous and distinguished com- 

 pany, among whom was one old friend even older than himself. 



Sir George owned a cottage at Play ford, near Ipswich, to which he 

 often retired for rest and recreation. Here he had spent bis boyhood, 

 and here at last he was laid in the grave- by the side of his wife. 

 Visiting the village every year, he could remember five generations 

 of more than one family, and could give the early history of most of 

 the others. The last scene of his life may be said to have begun and 

 ended here. On his last visit he had a fall, which in his enfeebled 

 state proved more serious than might have been expected. He never 

 properly rallied, but gradually sank and passed away at his residence 

 in Greenwich. His funeral at Playford Church was quiet and simple, 

 fitting the noble simplicity of his life. 



E. J. R, 



Edmond Becquerel. — In the long and brilliant roll of physicists 

 of whom France may justly boast, few names deserve a more promi- 

 nent position than that of Becquerel. The Becquerel family con- 

 stitutes a true dynasty of savants, and affords a twice repeated 

 instance of father and son engaged in the self-same studies, and 

 seated side by side in the same identical section of the Academy of 

 Sciences of Paris. 



The second of the family, Edmond Becquerel was born in 1820, and 

 grew up, as remarked in the official eloge delivered by M. Duchatre 

 on the occasion of his death, in a scientific atmosphere. From his 

 illustrious father, Antoine Cesar Becquerel, he evidently inherited his 

 acute power of observation, and that " infinite capacity for taking 

 pains," which seems to be the essential characteristic of the Newtons, 

 the Faradays, the Darwins, and, in short, of all the great leaders 

 of science. 



While thus born a savant, the cause which determined Edmond 

 Becquerel to become a physicist must be sought in the example and 

 the society of his father Antoine, first as a pupil, then as assistant. 

 Under different circumstances he might have become equally eminent 

 as a chemist or as a student of the organic sciences. 



As he approached manhood, the discovery of photography burst 

 upon the world, and naturally drew general attention to the chemical 

 action of light. Edmond Becquerel found here his opportunity, 

 and studied with zeal and success the conditions and laws of the 

 novel phenomena. His papers on the chemical radiations accom- 

 panying solar and electric light, and on their effects, were of distin- 

 guished value. He even succeeded in obtaining a photographic repr, 



