Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/124

 102 HISTORY OF THE [1840-50 for the past five years had been respectively 146, 151, 135, 140, 105. No new members joined. A valuation was made of the movable property ; it seems of an optimistic character. The total was 2649, of which " printed books, maps, and prints " accounted for 1565, and " instruments, natural history, and antiquities," 664. One may doubt the value of many of these curiosities ; in increasing frequency the Society's collection seems to have become a dumping ground for the domestic superfluities of its members, skins of penguins, a skeleton of a Borneo monkey, a head of an antelope, stand outside its pristine functions. Its Decline. But it struggled on. In 1841 the number of mem- bers was 30. In 1843 they removed from Crispin Street to 9 Devon- shire Street, and sold instruments to the value of 70. In 1844 a motion was made that the library of this Society be given to the library of the City of London, upon condition that " members of this Society be permitted to use the same during their lives," but noaction was taken. A few months later it was proposed that all the books, pictures, and other chattels be drawn for by the members by lot. Absorption. At this time the Society consisted of nineteen members, of whom three Dr. John Lee, Benjamin Gompertz, and J. J. Downes were also Fellows of our Society. Lee, who was eminently a good Fellow, took the situation in hand. He talked it over with our Council, and wrote a letter on 1845 May 10 to the Mathematical Society. He says, " A meeting of the Council of the Royal Astronomical Society took place yesterday, and I brought forward the suggestions contained in your recent letters to me relating to the venerable Mathematical Society of London, and the Council were unanimous [in regretting] that this ancient Society of 130 years' standing should be on the eve of dissolution and decline. The members of the Council were also, I believe, unanimous that if the nineteen surviving members of the Mathe- matical Society should in their liberality and public spirit wish to keep the mathematical, and astronomical and philosophical portions of their valuable library together, and should kindly and considerately offer to present it to the Royal Astronomical Society, that the Council of the latter would not only be grateful to them for this act of judicious benevolence, but would be willing to elect all the members of the Mathematical Society members for life of the Royal Astronomical Society. . . ." It was arranged that a visitation should take place by the President and Secretaries, Smyth, De Morgan, and Galloway. Lee concludes his letter : " I hope that this matter will terminate successfully and bene- ficially for both these noble-minded Societies." Surely no angel ever beckoned more beautifully a spent soul to euthanasia. The terms proposed were carried out. The