of Edinburgh, Session 1874-75. 
461 
3. Biographical Notice of Francis Deas. By the Hon, 
Lord Neaves. 
Another loss to our Society which we have to record and to 
deplore at this time, arises by the death of Mr Fkanois Deas. This 
loss forms a striking contrast to that of either of the members of 
whom I have already spoken. They retired from the scene not 
prematurely, but full of years and well-deserved honours, having 
attained or approached the longer limit to which human life in 
normal circumstances is considered to extend ; they had played out 
their parts, and, as having done so, were entitled to their dismissal 
amidst the plaudits of those who had witnessed and benefited by 
their labours. Mr Deas, on the other hand, was cut off, first by 
failing health, and ultimately by death, before he had attained the 
meridian of life, or could carry out into execution the capacities 
which, under a more favourable fate, would assuredly have earned 
him high distinction. 
Francis Deas, the eldest son of the Hon. Lord Deas, was born at 
Edinburgh on the 1st July 1839. He went through the usual 
curriculum of the Edinburgh Academy, which he quitted in July 
1856, having held a good place in all his classes, and having gained 
in 1855 the Ferguson medal, and in 1856 the Mitchell medal, both 
of them for proficiency in mathematics. He then went through 
the usual course of study at the Edinburgh University, taking 
prizes in almost all his classes — mathematics, logic and metaphysics, 
civil law, Scots law, rhetoric, and belles lettres, and natural philo- 
sophy ; but he did not confine his studies to the usual routine. He 
was a zealous student with Professor Balfour for two or more 
♦ 
sessions in botany, and accompanied him in his pedestrian excur- 
sions. He attended Dr Stevenson Macadam for practical chemistry, 
Professor Allman for natural history, and Dr Maclagan for medical 
jurisprudence. He continued in after life to keep up an intimacy 
with many of the Professors whose instructions he had thus 
received. 
In 1859, before he was twenty, he went to Berlin, principally in 
order to perfect himself in speaking G-erman, with which he was 
otherwise well acquainted, as well as -with French and Italian. He 
attended law and other classes at Berlin University in summer 1859. 
