Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/428

Rh obtain one of the best microscopes that can be constructed. Indeed we feel sure, that, independently of the liberal price that we have offered, there is no optician who would not feel highly gratified on seeing within these walls an instrument constructed by him.

The room. Gentlemen, in which we are met, has had some changes made in the pictures which adorn its walls. In consequence of these changes you will see, in addition to those portraits to which you are accustomed, the likeness of one of the most distinguished of our body ; of one who was equally eminent in natural philosophy and in arch83ology. Our posterity. Gentlemen, will probably hereafter be at a loss whether to admire Dr. Young most in his pursuits of natural knowledge, or in his discovery of the key to the greatest mystery of bygone ages, — the hieroglyphical writing of the Egyp- tians.

You will not be less pleased to see another portrait of a venerable philosopher still spared to us — of that great and original chemist, Dr. Dalton.

I have to congratulate you also on the possession of the bust of a lady whose acquirements are an honour to her sex and to her coun- try; and I feel sure that the likeness of Mrs. Somerville, from the hand of our lamented Chantrey, will ever be highly prized by the Royal Society.

In addition to these ornaments to our Apartments, since I ad- dressed you in our Anniversary Meeting of 1840, I must not pass over the portrait of Mr. Dollond, to whom the astronomer is so much indebted for his improvement in the art of constructing tele- scopes ; and I should be wholly inexcusable if I omitted the valua- ble picture given to us by Mr. Vignolles, and representing the prince of English science, the immortal Sir Isaac Newton.

I am happy to state that the Royal Society has not, during the past year, had to lament the death of any one of her Foreign Mem- bers. We could not reasonably hope that such should be the case among her British Fellows. I shall now, Gentlemen, conclude, as usual, by a short account of some of the more remarkable men, whe- ther for scientific research, or for public services, whom the Royal Society has had the misfortune to lose since last November.

Among the deceased Fellows of the present year, we have to lament the loss of one of the most eminent surgeons and physiolo- gists of our times — one whose investigations and discoveries have shed a new light on that most intricate part of the human organiza- tion — the Nervous System.

Sir Charles Bell, K.H., F.R.S. L. and E., &c., the youngest son of the Rev. W. Bell, of the episcopal church of Scotland, was born at Edinburgh in the year 1778. While a mere youth, he was instructed in the elements of anatomical science by his brother Mr. John Bell (himself a distinguished surgeon and anatomist), and at a very early period he published the first part of " Plates of Dissec- tions ; " a work alike remarkable for the fidelity of the anatomical