354 
ever, manifested his warm interest in the Society by the contribu- 
tion of several papers connected with his favourite subjects of As- 
tronomy and Meteorology. In 1832 he succeeded Sir W. Scott as 
President of the Society, an honour which he fully appreciated to 
the very last. While his health remained tolerably good, he took a 
very active and warm interest in the proceedings of the Society, and 
to his considerable personal inconvenience he, for many years, came 
by coach from Kelso to Edinburgh, on the first Monday of every 
month during the winter, when he attended the Club dinner, and 
afterwards presided at the evening Meeting. 
“ A certain simplicity of character, combined with a dignity and 
courtesy which peculiarly became him, made him deservedly and 
universally popular among the fellows. The perfect disinterested- 
ness with which he devoted himself to science, added to this favour- 
able Impression a feeling of sincere respect. He was lavish of 
money when any scientific object was in view. Many an unfriended 
but ingenious person has been encouraged by his liberality, which 
only erred sometimes on the side of being too indiscriminate. 
u Sir Thomas may be said to have spent, not one, but several 
fortunes in the cause of science; and all the while his personal 
habits were of the most simple and unpretending kind. About 
seventeen years ago, having fallen heir to a considerable property, 
his first thought was how to spend it best for the advancement of 
his favourite sciences. After consultation with one or two persons 
on whose judgment he relied, he determined on erecting the mag- 
netical and meteorological observatory at Makerstoun, and on sup- 
porting the needful staff of observers at his own expense. 
u The valuable observations which were made there, most ably 
superintended, for the most part, by Mr J. Allan Brown, were 
afterwards printed at great length in the Transactions of the So- 
ciety, at the joint expense of the Society and of Sir Thomas him- 
self. The value of these records — extending to three thick quarto 
volumes — will be hereafter even more appreciated than they are at 
present. They form probably the greatest contribution made to 
science by Sir T. Brisbane; hardly even excepting the establish- 
ment of the Australian Observatory. They have a double interest 
for us, as being a unique contribution to the science of his native 
country : and he was liberally anxious that the Royal Society 
should be so far associated with him in this truly patriotic work. 
