Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/213

 1870-80] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 185 summer of 1874, that for Egypt being naturally somewhat later. When the observers returned after the transit they were all placed under the superintendence of Captain G. L. Tupman, R.M.A., who had been leader of the expedition to the Sandwich Islands, to complete their share of the reductions or the measurement of photographs. The examination and final reduction was entrusted to Captain Tupman. 3. 1874-1875 At the February meeting in 1874, Professor Adams was elected President in place of Professor Cayley, and Mr. Cowper Ranyard to the office of Secretary that he had held pro tern., Mr. Dunkin being his colleague. The Gold Medal of the Society was awarded to Professor Simon Newcomb, for his researches on the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. In volume 35 of the Monthly Notices (1874 November to 1875 June) there are many papers, prospective and retrospective, relating to the Transit of Venus. At the November meeting the Astronomer Royal gave a long account of the Reports he had received from the British expeditions as to their journeys and establishment at their stations, speaking specially of the observa- tions for the determinations of longitude. He remarked that the general arrangement of stations was precisely as it had been from the beginning, although in some districts there had been expan- sions of the original plan tending to multiply the places of observa- tions, these now being Egypt, the Sandwich Islands, the Island of Rodriguez, New Zealand, Kerguelen, the last of which was an addition to the original scheme. Information that the observing parties had arrived at these places had been received from all except the last-named, and at the meeting in December, Sir George Airy was able to announce that successful observations had been made from Egypt and India, and by various expeditions sent by foreign countries, but information had not been received from the other British stations. It seemed fitting that the year of the Transit of Venus should be marked by the erection of a memorial to Jeremiah Horrocks, of Hoole, in Lancashire, who had predicted and observed the Transit of Venus of the year 1639. A petition was presented to Dean Stanley and the Chapter of Westminster, signed by the Astronomer Royal, the President, and several prominent Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society, requesting permission to place in Westminster Abbey a tablet or some other memorial of Jeremiah Horrocks. The subject was brought to the notice of the Fellows of the Society at the June meeting, and a request for subscriptions, which it was thought well to limit to sums not exceeding a guinea,