"The Theory of Probabilities." His studies were mainly directed towards astronomy, and he was with Professors Tacchini and Ricco on the river Viatka to observe the total solar eclipse of 1887 August 19. He completed his Russian degree in 1888 by a thesis on "The Method of Smoothing Series of Observations,' but his studies having created in him a desire to learn something more of Cambridge mathematics, he came over to England in June 1888, and spent a year in Cambridge. There are many who will long remember this visit of a young Russian enthusiast, attracted from so far by the fame of their university, who worked with the might of a mathematical Hercules. He wrote a sketch of Cambridge life in the European Messenger (a Russian review). He returned to St. Petersburg in the autumn of 1889, and was married on October 6. He resumed lecturing at the St. Petersburg University, on the method of least squares and the theory of gravitation; but the symptoms of the fatal disease from which he died had already appeared. He became seriously ill in May 1891, and died from phthisis, at Nice, on 1892 February 12.

In his short scientific life he wrote thirty-two papers, two of which have been published since his death. Eleven of these deal with meteors and shooting stars, the most important being the "Catalogue of 918 Orbits of Meteor Streams from the Observations of Mr. W. F. Denning" (Monthly Notices, vol. li. No. 1), and the posthumous paper "On the Displacement of Radiants by the Attraction and Motions of the Earth" (Monthly Notices, vol. lii. No. 5). Eleven papers deal with probabilities and statistics in their application to astronomy and meteorology, one or two are on pure mathematics, and one or two on miscellaneous subjects.

He was elected a Fellow of the Society on 1889 December 13.

THOMAS LEE was born in the parish of Galston in the year 1818, and first came to Kilmarnock, which he afterwards made his home, as a boy of fourteen, to fill the post of commercial clerk. Four years later he went to London, where he still continued to be engaged in commercial pursuits. After visiting. Paris and other cities he returned to Kilmarnock, and took up the profession of tuition, his first school being in Queen Street. When the appointment of mathematical and commercial master in the Kilmarnock Academy became vacant, the success and reputation Lee had already attained as a teacher caused him to be selected from a large number of candidates—a selection which his future career abundantly justified. He by no means confined his instructions to his pupils to their preparation for a business life, a work in which he was very successful, but took a great interest in training many of them in the higher branches of mathematics and astronomy, and secured for them more than a rudimentary knowledge of those sciences. He was greatly assisted in his astronomical teaching by the erection of the observatory in Morton Place, which was provided with two good reflecting telescopes and other astronomical instruments. This

observatory was built by the late Baillie Thomas Morton, whose daughter Mr. Lee married in 1841. He retired from public educational life in 1876, but as session clerk, an office to which he had been appointed in 1872 on the death of his son-in-law, Mr. Smith, and which he held up to the time of his death, he still took part in the public life of the town, and the celebration of his golden wedding-day in 1891 was made an occasion by his fellow-workers in the Kirk Sessions and his many friends for testifying to the regard in which he was held by them. He was a man of great information, clear intellect, keen scientific spirit, and fine personal character, and was widely respected. He was elected a Fellow of this Society 1856 June 13. He died 1892 January 24, leaving a widow, two sons, and four daughters.

WILLIAM EDWARDS MICHELL, of the Fort, Newquay, was the son of the late Mr. William Michell, Registrar of the Court of the Vice-Warden of the Stannaries of Cornwall and Devon. He was born at Truro, 1840 March 14, and was educated at private schools and at Christ Church, Oxford. Inheriting from his father a considerable property at Newquay, on the north coast of Cornwall, Mr. Michell soon became interested in its local affairs, and for many years he was one of the foremost in promoting the various improvements which have transformed this hitherto unknown seaside village into a place of popular resort. For more than thirty years he was an officer in the Royal Cornwall and Devon Miners' Artillery Militia, and during the last ten years its lieutenant-colonel in command. was also a magistrate for the county of Cornwall, and a member of the County Council. Colonel Michell was interested in the investigations of the probable origin of the local antiquities of Cornwall, and he has contributed papers on Camps and Tumuli," and other archæological remains to the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall. He also took a

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personal interest in the progress of astronomy, and in the proceedings of this Society, though he had few opportunities for attending the meetings. He had shown symptoms of declining health during the autumn, and in October he left Newquay to obtain the special advice of a London physician. His friends entertained great hopes of his recovery, but he never permanently rallied, and died at Woolwich on 1892 November 5, in the fifty-third year of his age.

Colonel Michell was elected a Fellow of the Society on 1874 June 12.

The Rev. ISAAC VALE MUMMERY was born in 1812 at Canterbury, and died in 1892 October 2. He was educated for the ministry at Coward College, and was successively settled as pastor at Tunbridge, Ratcliffe, and Bethnal Green. A brief account of his work will be found in the Evangelical Magazine for 1892 November. He was elected a Fellow at the Annual

General Meeting, 1853 February 11. He did not contribute any papers to the Society, but on 1873 June 13, the "Rev. J. V. Mummery presented to the Society a fine photograph from a painting of the late Mrs. Somerville" (Monthly Notices, xxxiii. p. 461). The printer's error, "J. V." for "I. V." in the initials, also occurs in the note of his election.

ANKITAM VENKATA NURSING Row was born in the year 1827. He comes of an ancient stock settled on the banks of the Krishna. Mr. Nursing Row's father was Diwan to the Nawab of Masulipatam, and his uncle a Dubash of the East India Company at Ganjam. Mr. Nursing Row lost his father when an infant; so he was brought to Vizagapatam, and brought up under the care of his maternal grandfather. His education was entrusted at first to Mr. Porter, and then to the Rev. J. Hay, M.A., D.D., the father of modern education in the Northern Circars. Mr. Nursing Row entered the service of the East India Company when he was young, and early rose to the position of a deputy collector; but his wife inherited a large estate from her mother, and he resigned his connection with the public service for the purpose of managing the estate. He found connected with it a small observatory, provided with a transit instrument, erected by his father-in-law, Mr. G. V. Jugga Row, an ingenious and wealthy Zemindar, who invented a pluviometer. Finding the management of the estate afforded him plenty of leisure, Mr. Nursing Row devoted himself to the study of astronomy. He learnt the rudiments of the science from Dr. Hay, and, in correspondence with eminent English astronomers, who kindly gave him a good deal of help, began to develop the institution left by his father-in-law. He had a new observatory built in 1874, and provided it with a 6-inch equatoreal instrument, a transit circle, and a sidereal clock. He was appointed Honorary Meteorological Reporter to the Government of India for Vizagapatam. The Government evening time-gun at this station having been discontinued on 1871 September 20, Mr. Nursing Row offered to bear the expenses of the firing, which the Government of Madras allowed as a special case, and this useful institution has been maintained ever since. He founded a photographic studio in this town. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1871, and of the Royal Geographical Society in 1872. The dearest wish of his heart was to provide the Observatory with the means for photographing the sky. For this purpose he obtained celestial photographic instruments, but died on 1892 June 18, before he could complete the arrangements.

BENJAMIN SCOTT was born in 1814, and was the son of Mr. Benjamin Scott, who at that time was a junior officer of the Corporation of the City of London. Mr. Scott was educated at Totteridge, and, on leaving school, entered the service of the

Corporation at once, becoming nominated for a junior clerkship before his age rendered him eligible for such a post. His steady perseverance and strict attention to the minutiae of the duties devolving upon him won him the favour of his superiors, and he rose steadily in his position until, on his father's death, he was appointed Chief Clerk to the Chamberlain of the City. On the death of his chief, Mr. Anthony Brown, he came forward as a candidate for the vacant office, but was not successful on that occasion. Later, however, on the death of Sir John Key in 1858, he was elected to the post with absolute unanimity, and he remained Chamberlain to the day of his death; his connection with the Corporation thus extending over a period of sixty-five years, and only being interrupted for a short time during Sir John Key's term of office, when for a while he laid aside all City work to devote himself to benevolent and philanthropic work.

His services to the City as Chamberlain during the long period of more than one-third of a century were of the highest order. His management of the finances of the Corporation was most wise and able, and by a judicious rearrangement of the bonds and loans he saved the Corporation large sums annually, thus enabling many well-considered schemes which must otherwise have been dropped for lack of funds to be carried through. Of these schemes, one of the most important, in which he took the most lively interest, was the acquisition of Epping Forest as an open space for the people of London.

He was a most earnest and skilful defender of the Corporation against the numerous attacks which have been made upon it; and his "Statistical Vindication of the City of London," a work upon which he devoted immense care and pains, remains as a monument of his efforts.

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Conscientiousness and thoroughness were amongst his chief characteristics, and however small a matter might be he bestowed upon it the same care and accuracy as if he were drawing a will or framing an indictment." He literally died in harness, for although he was not seen at the Guildhall again after Christmas, 1891, he was engaged upon his official work almost to the last day of his life. He died in 1892 January 17, only three days after the death of the beloved wife, to whom he had been married for nearly fifty years, and who was buried with him at Weybridge Cemetery, 1892 January 19. He was elected a Fellow of this Society 1860 April 13.

THOMAS TAYLOR was born in London on 1814 January 1, and died from chronic bronchitis at Montreux on 1892 March 6. After education by a private tutor, he entered St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he took the prize for botany. He was in general practice for some years, and also lectured on Chemistry both at St. Thomas's Hospital and at the Middlesex Hospital. Long and serious illness compelled him to abandon his connexion with the latter institution twenty-five years ago, and from that time he

gave little attention to scientific pursuits. He was the first to make known in England Dr. Schoenbein's process for manufacturing gun-cotton, and was the inventor of what is known as parchment paper. He was elected a Fellow in 1845 June, as a member of the Spitalfields Mathematical Society, but never contributed any paper to this Society.

GEORGE TURNBULL was born at Luncarty on 1809 September 2. He received his early education at the Perth Grammar School, and finished his studies at Edinburgh University, after which he came to London to study engineering under Telford, one of whose most trusted assistants he became. Mr. Turnbull was in 1829 elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers, and until Telford's death in 1834 was his professional representative and confidential clerk, and was connected with a large number of important dock, harbour, and other works. Among these may be mentioned the Bute Docks at Cardiff, the Folkestone and Dover Harbour works, the Shakspeare Tunnel, and the Great Northern Railway. In 1850 he was selected for the responsible position of Chief Engineer of the East Indian Railway, an appointment which he held till 1863, when he retired from active professional life, but he was afterwards employed as arbitrator in various disputes connected with Indian railways. He was in India during the Mutiny, and gave many proofs of his energy and courage in the conduct of engineering works in spite of opposition and difficulty.

Mr. Turnbull became a Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1840, and was elected a Fellow of this Society in December of the same year. He was a Member of the Senate of the University of Calcutta, and a Fellow of various other societies. In 1875 he settled at Rose Hill, Abbott's Langley, on a small estate which he had purchased, where he lived in retirement till his death on 1889 February 29.

W. MATTIEU WILLIAMS was born in London 1820 February 6. His father was Welsh, and his mother Swiss. He was unfortunate in losing his father when quite young, and his mother having married again when he was only eleven years old, he was at that early age obliged to leave school, and thrown entirely on his own resources. He was, however, adopted by a friend of his father, Mr. Z. Watkins, who eventually bequeathed a large fortune to him. Through him he was apprenticed to Mr. Street, optical instrument maker, of London, and for the next nine years he attended, after office hours, the night classes at the Mechanics' Institute, and spent his half-holidays and spare moments in reading. Owing to a great capacity for grasping details and an aptitude for mastering difficulties, he was at the age of nineteen well upin most subjects, but with a decided predilection for the physical sciences. He then, by the help of Mr. Watkins, went through a course of study at the Royal Infirmary at Edinburgh, but he was of too sensitive a disposition to become a good surgeon.