COUNCIL FOR 1871 . 
21 
come, and too truly a lover of knowledge with faith in its 
progress to he hasty in publishing views on account of their 
novelty, which might be made available by proofs of their 
truth. 
Professor Stokes has already presented to the British Asso¬ 
ciation a notice of these researches, and to him we must now 
look for further records of a work to which he has cheerfully 
contributed a large amount of valuable aid. 
The scientific pursuits of Mr. Harcourt were followed in the 
midst of great occupation as a clergyman, not only in charge of 
his parish, but open to perpetual demands for help in public 
institutions of an educational and charitable character. The 
Yorkshire School for the Blind, founded in honour of Wilber- 
force ; the York County Hospital, the Castle Howard Eeforma- 
tory, experienced the benefit of his guidance; indeed hardly 
any great movement in Yorkshire in favour of useful learning 
and comprehensive Christianity was carried on without his 
help, often given when his own health required cessation from 
labour. At many public meetings for these his place was to 
preside, a duty for which his thoughtful words and dignified 
presence and a certain natural union of gentleness and firmness, 
admirably qualified him. 
Though never a person of robust health, Mr. Harcourt was 
not much troubled by positive illness till towards the close of 
his life, when he became confined to a home rich in books and 
monuments of art, surrounded by a cheerful family, to which 
the graceful hospitality which had become a habit of his life, 
brought many additions from the large range of his personal 
friendships, and the more limited circle of men devoted to liter¬ 
ature and science resident in his own neighbouring University. 
He had been elected a Fellow of the Eoyal Society in 1824. 
His death occurred at Nuneham, in April, 1871. 
Among the Honorary Members of the Society the names of 
Sir E. Murchison, Professor Hincks, and Dr. Miller, of Exeter, 
will cease to appear. 
Sir E. I. Murchison, Baronet, the President of the Greological 
and of the Greographical Society, died on the 22nd of October 
last. His services to the Sciences which he cultivated are too 
well known to require any eulogium in this place. 
