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Rh return, testimonials of appreciation of his services to science began to come in from various quarters, lie had already been a Fellow of the Royal Society since 1869. He was now knighted in June, 1876; then he was awarded one of the gold medals of the Royal Society; was toasted by Professor Huxley at a scientific banquet given at Edinburgh in honor of the expedition; was created by the King of Sweden a knight of the Order of the Polar Star at Upsala, where he went with Professor Balfour, as a representative of the Edinburgh Senatus, to attend the tercentenary of the ancient university; was made LL. D. at Aberdeen, D. C. L. at Dublin, a Doctor of Philosophy at Jena, D. Sc. and Fellow of various British and foreign societies. In 1877 he was appointed to deliver the Rede Lecture at Cambridge. In 1878 he presided over the Geographical Section of the British Association, and took as the subject of his address, "The Advances which have been made in Late Years in the Application of the Physical Sciences to the Illustration of the General Condition of the Earth." He was also Vice-President of the Jury on Raw Products at the Paris Exhibition of 1867. He took the lead in organizing the School of Art in Belfast, under the Science and Art Department, and was the chairman of the first board of directors. He was a Conservative in politics, and was a magistrate and Commissioner of Supply for the county of Linlithgow.

His health, never very vigorous, was not improved during his voyage on the Challenger. In June of 1879 he was attacked with paralysis, and had to suspend the conduct of his classes in the university, and lay aside the work of superintending the compilation of the Challenger's researches. He was never able to work steadily afterward. He had a second attack about four months before his death, after which he seemed to be getting along through the winter tolerably well, till about two weeks before his death, when he got a severe chill from exposure, from which he never recovered.

Sir Wyville Thomson's principal literary works include "The Depths of the Sea," containing the accounts of the expeditions of the Lightning and the Porcupine, in which is given all that is known as to the records of the existence of deep-sea life up to 1865; the "Voyage of the Challenger. The Atlantic," in two volumes, giving a preliminary account of the general results of the Challenger Expedition; and his part of the work in the formal official report of the expedition, of which he lived to see only the first three volumes completed. At the time he was prostrated, he was preparing for the press a narrative of the voyage, to appear in the official work, based on one drawn up by Staff-Commander Tizard, the chief commanding officer of the Challenger. He also delivered several public addresses before scientific and popular bodies, which were marked by clearness of statement and sustained interest. The departments of zoölogy to which he devoted most attention were those which included the corals,