46 



PKOCEEMNGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



sense of symmetry and appropriateness of the mathematician." 

 He thus, as it has been well said, " placed the keystone into the 

 arch of the science of crystallography ; " and the " future develop- 

 ment of that science, there can be little doubt, will follow on the 

 lines laid down by Miller." 



Professor Miller's shorter communications on mineralogy and 

 physics are numerous and valuable, and ; in addition to them and 

 to his original treatise, he published, in 1863, a tract on crystallo- 

 graphy. In 1852 a work appeared entitled a new edition of the 

 'Elementary Introduction to Mineralogy, by the late William 

 Phillips,' by H. J. Brooke and W. H. Miller. It is, however, no 

 disparagement to either the original author or his fellow editor to 

 say that Professor Miller made this volume almost his own. 



But Professor Miller's reputation does not rest only upon his 

 work as a mineralogist, great though that was. His name is no 

 less inseparably connected with the difficult and delicate experiments 

 and investigations connected with the restoration of the standards 

 of measurement and weight, and with the subsequent labours of 

 the International Metric Commission. 



After the fire which, in 1834, consumed the Houses of Parlia- 

 ment, it was found that the standards of measurement and weight 

 were hopelessly ruined. Professor Miller was not a member of 

 the Commission appointed to consider the questions connected 

 with their restoration, but lent the Commissioners much friendly 

 assistance. Then, in 1843, a Committee was appointed to super- 

 intend the construction of the new Parliamentary standards of 

 length and weight, of which Professor Miller was a member ; and 

 to him was confided the construction of the new standards of 

 weight. In the ' Philosophical Transactions ' for 1856 he describes 

 at length " the operations for restoring the value of the old 

 standard of weight, for constructing the new standard of a 

 different value, for constructing various derived standards, and 

 for establishing the relative value of the kilogramme," a paper 

 which (to quote the words of the Astronomer Royal, indorsed by 

 a former President of the Royal Society, Sir Edward Sabine) " will 

 long be cited as a model of accuracy." 



He was subsequently a member of a new Royal Commission for 

 "examining into and reporting on the state of the secondary 

 standards, and for considering every question which could affect 

 the primary, secondary, and local standards." 



In the year 1870 he was appointed a member of the " Commission 

 Internationale du Metre." 



He was appointed Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society in 

 1856, a post for which he was eminently fitted by his accurate and 

 extensive knowledge of French, German, and Italian, his methodical 

 habits, and unvarying courtesy, as well as by his extensive scientific 

 knowledge. 



He received in 1865 the degree of LL.D. from the University 

 of Dublin, and in 1876 that of D.C.L. from Oxford. In 1870 he 

 was awarded a Royal Medal by the Roj al Society. He was a 



