of Edinburgh, Session 1880-81. 
99 
of several I can vouch from my acquaintance with them in the 
Parsonstown six feet. 
It is greatly to be regretted that this noble telescope was not 
acquired by some national Observatory. Lassell was whiling to 
dispose of it to the Victoria authorities, who were thinking of 
establishing a great telescope at Melbourne ; but an unhappy mis- 
understanding prevented them from accepting his offer. After a 
few years the instrument was broken up, and its materials sold. 
On his return to England he re-erected the two-feet Equatorial and 
continued to observe with it till his sight failed him. He died 
October 5, 1880, in his 82nd year. He was not less active as a 
writer than as an observer. In the Royal Society Catalogue his name 
occurs seventy-seven times, and there is scarcely one of those papers 
that does not contain valuable information. And his work was well 
appreciated. The University of Cambridge conferred on him the 
degree of LL.D. He was a member of many celebrated scientific 
Societies, and was President of the Astronomical Society, whose 
gold medal he received ; be received also a royal medal from the 
Royal Society of London. 
I conclude this notice by stating that my intercourse w r ith him 
gave me the impression that he was a good and noble-minded man 
of high purpose, and utterly unclouded by any of that jealous and 
contentious spirit which too often darkens scientific life. 
Maurice Lothian. By Sheriff Hallard. 
Maurice Lothian, formerly Procurator-Fiscal of this county, died 
at St Catherine’s, in the neighbourhood of this city, on 15th July 
last, in his 85th year.* He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 
1869, having then for some years outlived that critical moment in 
old age mentioned by the Psalmist. For him, as for others, our 
diploma was one of the crowning honours of an active and well-spent 
life. 
* Born in the end of the eighteenth century, he was wont to tell of a family 
incident which connected him with its beginning. His grandfather was in the 
Porteous mob. Disguised in his wife’s clothes, this ancestor took his share in 
the business transacted in the Grassmarket on that memorable night, came 
home before dawn, resumed his male attire, went down to Leith, took ship, 
and never was heard of more. 
