Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/101

 1840-50] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 83 1840 . . 350 1844 . . 337 1848 . . 364 1841 . . 348 1845 . . 344 1849 . . 388 1842 . . 349 1846 . . 365 1850 . . 412 1843 . . 341 1847 . 365 These include 36 Associates at the beginning of the epoch and 57 at the end. The accounts show a state of steady, if moderate, prosperity. The invested funds, apart from compounders' fees, increased by 400. There was a sum of floating arrears,* which on occasion imposed the unpleasant necessity of expulsion of defaulting Fellows, but "it is gratifying to state that the Society is high among scientific associations as to the promptitude with which its dues are paid." Presents. The Society was the recipient of some interesting presents. Among these was Caroline Herschel's telescope, a 7-foot Newtonian reflector, made by her brother and presented by her nephew. A fine altitude and azimuth instrument, constructed by Reichenbach, of Munich, was presented by Admiral Greig, an officer of the Russian Navy. Admiral Greig was a brother-in-law of Mrs. Somerville, and one of the very first members of the Society. He founded" the observatory of Nicolajew, and " there is no question that the successful building and endowment of Pulkowa are mainly owing to his care and intelligent guidance." A cast of Chantrey's bust of Mrs. Somerville was presented in 1844. In the same year, Turnor, having acquired some very valuable manuscripts on vellum, containing calendars of the years 1347, 1349, besides planetary tables and other matters, of which the Assistant Secre- tary, Harris, gave a description in Monthly Notices, 1845 January, presented them to the Society with a very graceful letter.* Pearson presented the remaining copies of his Practical Astronomy. The generous Mr. Lee presented the advowson of Stone, the second advowson he had made over to the Society. Another interest- ing gift of his was a portrait of John Middleton, who founded in 1717 the " respectable and useful Society of Mathe- maticians in Spitalfields," which our Society absorbed in 1846, as related below. The senior surviving member of the Mathe- matical Society, William Wilson, presented in 1847 twenty-five engraved portraits, which included thirteen of the twenty-three engravings of Newton. Classed with gifts which show the attachment of Fellows to the Society should be mentioned Baily's payment of the cost of volume 13 of the Memoirs, and also Sheepshanks's gift to each of the Fellows of a print of the engraving of the Society's portrait of Baily, " a man whose memory must be an object of almost filial M.N., 80, 260.
 * See Dr. Dreyer's paper " On the Original Form of the Alfonsine Tables,"