597 
1902 - 3 .] Meetings of the Society. 
Galloway, but in 1896 was transferred do Roxburgh,. Berwick and 
Selkirk. 
For many years a Commissioner of Northern Lighthouses, he 
took a keen and active interest in the work of that Board. He 
was a Member of the Antiquarian Society, and was elected a 
Fellow of this Society in 1898. 
Major-General Sir John Hills, K.C.B., the son of James; 
Hills, of Neechindepore, Bengal, was born in 1834, and died on 
18th June 1902. Educated at the Edinburgh Academy and at the 
University of Edinburgh, he, in 1854, received his commission in 
the Royal (Bombay) Engineers, and after thirty-six years’ service, 
retired in 1890. During this time he saw much active service, 
being with the Persian Expeditionary Force and with the Abys- 
sinian Expedition. For his services in the Afghan War of 1879- 
80, when he took part in the defence of Kandahar, he was 
mentioned in dispatches and made a C.B. As Commanding 
Royal Engineer in the Burma War he saw more active service. In 
1900 he received the decoration of K.C.B. He became a Fellow 
of this Society in 1859. 
Robert Irvine was born at Edinburgh in 1839. He at one time 
acted as Assistant to the late Professor George Wilson, Professor 
of Technology in the University of Edinburgh ; thereafter he was 
engaged as Chemist at the extensive paperworks belonging to the 
Messrs Cowan, Penicuik, and later at a chemical w r orks at 
Magdalene Bridge, near Musselburgh. For nearly fifty years he 
was connected with the ink-works of A. B. Fleming & Co., 
Granton, as Chemical Director and as Consulting Chemist. He 
was elected a Fellow of this Society in 1886, and became a 
Member of the Council in 1899. In conjunction with Sir John 
Murray and others he contributed to the Transactions and Pro- 
ceedings of the Society many valuable papers, giving the results of 
researches having close and important bearings on problems con- 
nected with Oceanography. For his papers on “The Action of 
Organisms in the Secretion of Carbonate of Lime and Silica,” and 
on “ The Solution of these Substances in Organic Juices,” the 
Council of the Society awarded him the Neill Prize for the 
period 1892-95. His death took place on the 20th March 
1902. 
