Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/119

Rh Cambridge, was in early life a schoolfellow of Lord Nelson, of whose talents or character, however, he retained no very vivid impressions : he became a Member of the University in 1777, and when he took his degree in 1781 he was fourth Wrangler and first Smith's Prize- man, a discrepancy in the results of two similar examinations, which is said to have led to the adoption of some regulations prevent- ing their recurrence in future. In the year 1800 he became one of the public tutors of his college, in conjunction with its pre- sent venerable and distinguished master, and secured, in a very uncommon degree, the respect and love of his pupils, by his skill and knowledge as a teacher, and by his kind and vigilant attention to their interests: he quitted the tuition in 1810, and for the re- mainder of his life he devoted himself, almost exclusively, to the cultivation of practical and theoretical astronomy, having succeeded to Mr. Ludlam in the management of the observatory which is placed over one of the interior gateways of the college. He possessed a most accurate knowledge of the theory and use of astronomical instruments, and was a most scrupulous and skilful observer; and he is known to have left behind a very large mass of observations, par- ticularly of occultations, most carefully detailed and recorded. Mr. Catton was a man of very courteous manners and most amiable character, and possessed of a very extensive acquaintance both with literature and science. He died in the month of January last, in the eightieth year of his age, deeply regretted by the members of the college in which he had passed the greatest part of his life.

Mr. Henry Earle, one of the Senior Surgeons of St. Bartholomew's Hospital, was the son of one very eminent surgeon, Sir James Earle, and the grandson of another, Mr. Percival Pott. He was the author of many valuable articles in different medical journals, and likewise of two papers in our Transactions ; one detailing the result of a very novel and difficult surgical operation, and the other on the mechanism of the spine, which were published in 1822 and 1823. Mr. Earle was considered to be one of the most skilful and scien- tific surgeons of his age, and was justly esteemed by his professional and other friends not merely for his great acquirements, but for his kindness of heart and upright and honourable character.

John Lloyd Williams, formerly British resident at Benares, was the author of three short papers in our Transactions in the year 1793 ; two of them upon the method of making ice at Benares, by means of extremely porous and shallow evaporating pans of unglazed earthenware, placed upon dry straw or sugar-cane ; and the last fur- nishing additional descriptions of the great quadrants and gnomon in the observatory at Benares, which had been described in a paper in our Transactions in 1777 by Sir Robert Barker.

The Foreign Members whom the Society has lost during the last year, are Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch, of Boston, in America ; Messieurs Dulong and Frederic Cuvier, of Paris ; and Dr. Martin van Marum, of Haarlem.

Dr. Nathaniel Bowditch of Boston, in the State of Massachusetts in America, was born at Salem, in the same State, in 1773 : he was