No. 51. (25) Ordinary 4-inch compass with needle. 52. (26) Dipping needle, by Robinson. 53. (27) Compass needle, mounted for variation. 54. (28) Magnetic intensity needle, by Meyerstein, of Göttingen; a strongly fitted brass box with heavy magnet; filar suspension. 55. (29) Box of magnetic apparatus. 56. (30) Hassler's reflecting circle, by Troughton; a 10-inch reflecting and repeating circle, with stand and counterpoise, divided on platinum with two movable and two fixed indices; four verniers reading to 10". 57. (31) Box sextant and glass plane artificial horizon, by Troughton and Simms. ,, 58. (32) Plane 23-inch speculum, artificial horizon, and stand. 59. (33) 24-inch circular level horizon, by Dollond. 61. (35) Set of drawing instruments, consisting of 62. (36) A pantograph. 63. (37) A noddy. 64. (38) A small Galilean telescope with object-glass of rock crystal. 65. (39) Five levels. 66. (40) 18-inch celestial globe. 67. (41) Varley stand for telescope. 69. (43) Telescope, with object-glass of rock crystal. 72. Four polarimeters. 74. Registering spectroscope, with one large prism. 76. Two five-prism direct-vision spectroscopes. 78. 94-inch silvered-glass reflector and stand, by Browning. 79. Spectroscope. 80. A small box, containing three square-headed Nicol's prisms; two Babinet's compensators; two doubleimage prisms; three Savarts; one positive eyepiece, with Nicol's prism; one dark wedge. 81. A back-staff, or Davis' quadrant. " 82. A nocturnal or star dial. 3 feet 83. An early non-achromatic telescope, of about 84. A Hollis observing chair. 85. Double-image micrometer, by Troughton and Simms. 86. 4-inch Gregorian reflecting telescope, by Short, with altazimuth stand and 6-inch altitude and azimuth circles and two eyepieces. No. 87. 3-inch Gregorian reflecting telescope with wooden tripod stand. 88. Pendulum, with 5-foot brass suspension rod, working on knife-edges, by Thomas Jones. 89. A Rhabdological Abacus. A contrivance invented by Mr. H. Goodwyn, consisting of a box filled with compartments, in which are square rods covered with numbers, which can be arranged so as to facilitate the labour of multiplying high numbers. 90. An Arabic celestial globe of bronze, 52 inches in diameter. 91. Astronomical time watchcase, by Professor Chevallier. 92. 2-foot protractor, with two movable arms, and vernier. Beam compass, in box. 94. 2-foot navigation scale. 95. Stand for testing measures of length. 96. Artificial planet and star, for testing the measurement of a fixed distance at different positionangles. 97. 12-cell Leclanché battery. 98. 2-foot 6-inch navy telescope, with object-glass 2 inches, by Cooke, with portable wooden tripod stand. 99. 12-inch transit instrument, by Fayrer and Son, with level and portable stand. 100. 9-inch transit instrument, with level and iron stand. IOI. Small equatorial sight instrument, by G. Adams, London. 102. Sun-dial, by Troughton. 103. Sun-dial, by Casella. 104. Sun-dial. 105. Box sextant, by Troughton and Simms. 106. Prismatic compass, by Schmalcalder, London. 107. Compass, by C. Earle, Melbourne. 110. Abney level, by Elliott. 112. Universal sun-dial. 108. Prismatic compass, by Negretti and Zambra. 109. Dipleidoscope, by E. Dent. III. Pocket spectroscope, by Browning. 113. Double sextant, by Jones. 114. Two models, illustrating the effects of circular motions. 115. A cometarium. 116. A pair of 18-inch globes. No. 119. Specimens of diffraction gratings, by Prof. W. A. Rogers. 120. A 6-prism spectroscope, by Browning. 121. Spitta's improved maximum and minimum thermo meter. 122. A 6-inch speculum, with flat; the speculum said to be by Sir W. Herschel, and re-figured by Sir J. Herschel. 123. A 6-inch refracting telescope, by Grubb, with 3 eyepieces. 124. Position micrometer, by Cooke. 125. A 6-inch refracting telescope, by Simms, with eyepieces and solar diagonal. 126. 3-in. portable refracting telescope, by Tulley, with tripod stand. 127. Globe representing the visible surface of the Moon, by John Russell, R.A. (1797). 128. Bichromate battery and Ruhmkorff coil. ,, 129. Slater's improved armillary sphere, presented by Prof. Slater. The following instruments are lent, during the pleasure of the Council, to the undermentioned persons : No. 4. :: IO. 16. 22. The Beaufoy transit instrument, to the Observatory, Kingston, Canada. Variation transit, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. The Wollaston telescope, to Mr. R. Inwards. The Matthew equatoreal, to Mr. J. Brett. The Matthew transit, to Captain W. Noble. 28. (2) 6-inch theodolite and stand, to Dr. A. A. Common. (3) Wire micrometer (No. 1), to Mr. C. Thwaites. Wire micrometer (No. 2), to Mr. Maxwell Hall. (4) 34-inch equatoreal and stand, to Mr. E. B. Powell. Double-image micrometer, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. 31. (5) 24-inch telescope and stand, to Mr. F. J. Wardale. 34. (8) Transit instrument and stand, to Professor C. 23. 29. 38. (12) 18-inch Borda repeating circle, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. 39. (13) 8-inch repeating circle, to Mr. J. Norman Lockyer. 50. (24) Prismatic compass, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. 54. (28) Magnetic intensity needle, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. W. Huggins. Registering spectroscope, to Mr. John Mitchell. 94-inch reflector and stand, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. Spectroscope, to Mr. Maxwell Hall. 2-inch navy telescope, to Mr. M. D. Severn. 6-prism spectroscope, by Browning, to Mr. C. 6-inch refractor, by Grubb, with three eyepieces, Position micrometer, by Cooke, to the Rev. A. One dark wedge, to the Rev. A. Freeman. The Gold Medal. The Council have awarded the Society's Gold Medal to Professor H. C. Vogel for his Spectroscopic and other Astronomical Observations. Publications of the Society. Volume L. of the Memoirs has been published during the past year; it contains the following papers :— "Fifth Catalogue of Micrometrical Measures of Double Stars made at the Temple Observatory, Rugby." By G. M. Seabroke, A. P. Smith, and H. P. Highton. "Observations of the Spectra of Sun-spots in the Region B-D made at the Stonyhurst College Observatory." Rev. A. L. Cortie. By the "Measures of Double Stars made at Sydney Observatory in the years 1882-89." Communicated by H. C. Russell. "Double-star Observations, 1888-91." By W. H. Maw. "On the Construction of a Five-foot Equatorial Reflecting Telescope." By A. A. Common. The attention of foreign and American astronomers is requested to the following paragraph in the Report of the Council for 1879. It is against the rules of the Society to print any paper previously published: "The Council hope that the communication between English and foreign astronomers will continue to increase, but they take this opportunity of mentioning that some of the papers which have been received by the Society have not been printed on account of their having been previously published abroad." OBITUARY. The Council regret that they have to record the loss by death of the following Fellows and Associates during the past year: Fellows:-Rev. Edward Allen. Robert Grant. Thomas Archer Hirst. Joseph Kleiber. Benjamin Loewy. W. Edwards Michell. Rev. Joseph Spear. Thomas Taylor. George Turnbull. W. Mattieu Williams. Associates:-Annibale de Gasparis. Admiral E. Mouchez. Lewis M. Rutherfurd. JOHN COUCH ADAMS was born on June 5, 1819, at the farmhouse of Lidcot, seven miles from Launceston, in Cornwall. His father was a tenant farmer, and his mother possessed a small estate of land of her own. She had also inherited her uncle's library, and these books, which included some on astronomy, were his early companions. At the village school at Laneast he made rapid progress, and was learning algebra before he was twelve years old. At this age he went to a private school at Devonport, kept by the Rev. John Couch Grylls, a first cousin of his mother. He remained under Mr. Grylls's tuition for a good many years, first at Devonport and afterwards at Saltash and Landulph, and received the usual school training in classics and mathematics. Astronomy had been his passion from very early boyhood, and at fourteen years of age he made copious notes and drew tiny maps of the constellations. He read with avidity all the astronomical books to which he could obtain access, and in particular he studied the astronomical articles in Rees's |