Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/44

 28 HISTORY OF THE [1820-30 of the Tail of a Comet," which are surprisingly suggestive of modern views of light pressure. He shows himself aware of the difficulties in converting a vibratory movement into a translatory, but he is impressed with the fact that if the whole heating power of the sun's rays could be converted into a centrifugal force, the accelera- tion would be 800 miles per sec. per sec. ; and he is tempted to think that even a small fraction of this might serve. He draws careful distinction between the case of a large body like the earth and a " single and free molecule." In the following year he considered the development of heat in the sun from bombardment by meteors, but had not good enough data to make suggestions of modern value. But he set about improving the data for radia- tion by experiments of his own, though they still led him to a potential temperature of about 12 million degrees for the solar surface. There our printed records about him practically stop. But, alas ! there are others in our archives and minutes. At the end of the Council Minutes for 1879 May 9, " A letter was read from Mr. J. J. Waterston, asking that his name might be removed from the list of Fellows of the Society. His request was acceded to." Seeing that he had " compounded " for his annual subscriptions (on 1852 January 9) the step is a remarkable one and led to further search. In 1878 May and June two papers were received from Waterston, and are duly recorded in the printed list (M.N., 39, 298-9), " On the Heat of the Stars, J. J. Waterston," " On a Solar Thermometer Couple to Measure the radiant Force of Daylight, J. J. W'aterston." But they were not allowed to be read or printed. They even appear to have been returned to the author, for they are the only absentees from the bundle of that year in our archives. And their sequel and undoubted consequence was the above withdrawal. These rebuffs undoubtedly prayed on his mind. From occasional remarks his family knew that he had been badly treated by scientific societies, but he never stated his grievances explicitly. He was one of the kindliest of men, and a great lover of children, by whom he was beloved in Edinburgh, where he lived (after his return from India) in Gayfield Square, off Leith Walk. One day in 1883 he went out for a walk and did not return. He used often to go to Leith pier, and it was believed that he had by some accident fallen into the water ; but his body was never found. It is of small value to look back over a hundred years if we may not pause occasionally to reflect on some of the lessons suggested in the retrospect ; and though this matter of the relationship of scientific societies to their members is something of a digression, it does touch on one of the factors which seems to have been