i6o 
SIR JOSEPH BANKS. 
Dr. Horsley and ronie of his friends withdrew from the Society, and 
Banks’ position as President was never again challenged. See p. 171. 
The year 1784 is also memorable for the discussion as to the claims 
of Cavendish, Watt, and Lavoisier to the merit of the discovery of the 
composition of water. 
In the same year the Council of the Royal Society petitioned the 
King to provide funds to commence a geodetical survey, with the 
immediate object of establishing a trigonometrical connection between 
No. 41. — Sir Joseph Banks. Painter (? ) George Dance; Eng., Ridley. 
(‘‘ European Magazine,” 1802.) 
the Observatories of Paris and Greenwich in order to determine the 
difference of longitude. This work was proceeded with under General 
Roy, and Banks took a very great interest in it. 
In 1785 Banks, as President, laid before the King the scheme of 
Herschel, the astronomer, for the construction of a reflecting telescope 
of colossal dimensions. The King approved of the work, and the 
instrument was completed in 1789. [ • 
In 1793, Volta communicated to the Royal Society his important 
discovery of the development of electricity on metallic bodies, produced 
by the contact of two metals. The explanation why Volta chose this 
