39 
Ordinary Meeting December 16tb, 1873. 
E. W. Binney, F.RS., F.G.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Mr. James Heelis was elected an Ordinary Member of the 
Society, 
The Chairman said that since the last meeting: the 
Society had lost one of its most illustrious members by the 
death of Professor Louis Agassiz, the great naturalist, who 
had been an Honorary Member for above thirty years. He 
(the Chairman) had the honour of being personally ac- 
quainted with the deceased, having been brought into com- 
munication with him during the publication of his great 
work, ‘'Kecherches sur les Poissons fossiles,” and having 
had the pleasure of supplying him with specimens for its 
illustration. In the Eoyal Society’s Catalogue is a list of 
130 scientific memoirs he gave to the world. The reputa- 
tion of Agassiz as one of the foremost men of his day in 
natural history is too well known to need any tribute from 
me, but after a lapse of thirty years his amiable manners 
and his great kindness in cheerfully imparting his vast 
stores of knowlege to the humblest student are fresh in my 
memory. He was one of the kindest and heartiest of men, 
and his fine and manly countenance at that time was the 
picture of health and good nature, and truly reflected the 
genial soul within. In great and small matters he was 
equally punctual and correct. All who ever allowed him to 
make use of their specimens must well remember the ample 
acknowledgments he made and the scrupulous care with 
which they were returned; and some of the first living 
palaeontologists might learn a useful lesson in this respect 
from the illustrious dead. With Agassiz it may be traly 
said that it was hard to decide whether his head or his 
