Address delivered by the President, Sir William Huggins, K. C. B., O. M., F. R. S., at the anniversary meeting on November 30, 1905

Abstract

Memorial Notices of the Fellows and Foreign Members who have been taken from us by death during the past year will appear in due course in the Obituary Notices. Of some of them only, on this occasion, will time permit me to give expression on your behalf, to a few words of appreciation of their work, and of deep sorrow at their loss. Not among the Fellows only, or alone in this country, but throughout the scientific world, the news of the unexpected death of our Fellow, and recent Vice-President, Dr. William Thomas Blanford, was received with deep regret and sorrow. Not only had a distinguished worker in science fallen out, there was lost to us a gentle, kindly friend, who had gained the affectionate regard of all those who had the privilege of having been personally acquainted with him. Only a few weeks before his death, he had been asked by the Council to write an Obituary Notice of our late Fellow, Mr. Medlicott, his old friend and colleague, and collaborator with him in the classic work, ‘The Manual of the Geology of India,' published in 1879. Before the printer’s proofs reached him, Dr. Blanford himself had passed from the ranks of the living. Dr. Blanford was distinguished as a zoologist as well as a geologist. From the time of his appointment to the Geological Survey of India in 1855, on the completion of a very successful course of study at the Royal School of Mines, and at the Mining Academy at Freiberg, to his retirement in 1882, by the publication of a series of works, and by untiring original observations, he greatly enriched our knowledge of the geology and zoology of that country. Besides his published works on the geology and fauna of India, he has contributed important papers and addresses, which are distinguished by great scientific insight and a, masterly grasp of the subjects to which he had devoted his life. His high and kindly qualities were fully recognised. He received the distinction of the Companionship of the Order of the Indian Empire, and was awarded medals by the Royal Society and the Geological Society. He was elected into our Society in 1874, and was for many years Treasurer of the Geological Society.