Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/214

 186 HISTORY OF THE [1870-80 was made and responded to. Formal consent having been given by the Chapter, on the advice of Dean Stanley, who interested him- self greatly in the matter, a block of marble with a curved surface was added to the monument of Conduitt, the relation of Newton, which stands on the north side of the west door of the Abbey, and on this an inscription was cut recording Horrocks' achieve- ments. The memorial stone actually forms part of the Conduitt monument. The whole sum raised by subscription was 89, i6s., of which 51, is. was expended on the memorial, including a fee of 25 paid to the Chapter. The balance was handed to the Council of the Society, and, with an added sum, was invested, the interest to be devoted to the purchase of books for the Library ; and this money now figures in the annual accounts as the Horrocks Fund, together with the interest on a sum of 500 bequeathed by the Rev. Charles Tumor in 1853 for a similar purpose. Apart from the Transit of Venus, Coggia's Comet was the astro- nomical event of this year. This comet was discovered by M. Coggia, at Marseilles, on April 17, and became a splendid naked- eye object in the northern sky in June and July. It was observed very completely with the spectroscope by Huggins, Lockyer, and others, while drawings of the comet were made by various observers and published in the Monthly Notices, 35, 36. On 1874 November 13 the Society met for the first time in the rooms it now occupies. In 1868 and the years following, Burlington House was altered and enlarged by the addition of the east and west wings, to provide suitable quarters for those learned Societies who still occupied rooms in Somerset House, which were required for other purposes. Mr. Charles Barry was the Architect, and the interiors were arranged to suit the require- ments of the Societies. The western wing, the southern portion of which was allotted to our Society, was completed in the first half of 1874, and the removal of the Library and other property of the Society was effected, principally under the direction of Mr. Dunkin, between the June and November meetings. Between the November and December meetings the Society lost by death the valuable service of their Assistant Secretary, Mr. John Williams. Mr. Williams had been a Member of the Mathematical Society, and became a Fellow of the Royal Astro- nomical Society when the two were incorporated. On the death of Mr. Harris, Assistant Secretary, in 1846 April, Mr. Williams was chosen to succeed him, and therefore ceased to be a Fellow. He was a student of science of many kinds, but the chief work of his early life was the study of Egyptian hieroglyphics. From this he turned to Chinese, and attained great fame for his know- ledge of that language. Several papers on the astronomy of the