IV. A Summary of an Inquiry into the Function of Respiration at Various V. Further Researches on the Physiology of Sugar in relation to the Blood. Obituary Notices : ADOLPHE THEODORE BRONGNIART ELIAS MAGNUS FRIES Contents and Index . PAGE 498 520 vii 531 GOVERNMENT GRANT OF £1000. A MEETING of the Government-Grant Committee will be held in February, 188 It is requested that applications to be considered at that Meeting be forwarded t the Secretaries of the Royal Society, Burlington House, before the 31st Decembe 1879. GOVERNMENT FUND OF £4000 FOR THE PROMOTION OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH. A MEETING of the Government-Fund Committee will be held in February, 1 It is requested that applications to be considered at that Meeting be forwarded the Secretaries of the Royal Society, Burlington House, before the 31st of Decem 1879. PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS, Extra volume (vol. 168) containing the Reports of the Naturalists attached to Transit of Venus Expeditions. Price £3. Sold by Harrison and Sons. Separate copies of Papers in the Philosophical Transactions, commencing with 1 may be had of Trübner and Co., 57, Ludgate Hill. CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC PAPERS, COMPILED BY THE ROY SOCIETY. Published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office. 8 vols., 4to. 1800-1873. Per vol.: 20s., cloth; 28s., half-morocco. On Sale by Murray, Albemarle Street, and Trübner and Co., Ludgate Hill HARRISON AND SONS, 45 & 46, ST. MARTIN'S LANE, W.C.. AND ALL BOOKSELLERS. OBITUARY NOTICES OF FELLOWS DECEASED. THE REV. WILLIAM BRANWHITE CLARKE was born 2nd June, 1798, at East Bergholt, county of Suffolk, and educated partly in his father's house, under the Rev. R. G. Suckling Browne, B.D., a distinguished Hebrew scholar, and Fellow of Dulwich College, and partly at Dedham Grammar School; he entered into residence at Jesus College, Cambridge, in October, 1817. He took his degree in January, 1821, and in 1824 became M.A. In May, 1821, he received deacon's orders from Dr. Bathurst, Bishop of Norwich, and priest's orders in May, 1823. From May, 1821, to November, 1824, he was trained as curate at Ramsholt, at Nedging and Whatfield, at Chellesworth and Brantham, and then in his native parish. He took advantage of his rector's permission to travel every year, and thus laid the foundation of practical application of the geological and mineralogical lessons he had received at the University, under Professor Sedgwick and Dr. E. Clarke, the great traveller. He made a personal examination of the most celebrated formations of Europe. He travelled extensively in England and Wales and on the Continent from 1820 to 1839, not omitting a single year. He thus visited the Lake District, the Isle of Man, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, North Wales, the chalk and oolite of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the chalk of Sussex and Normandy, the central and southern parts of France, the Alps and North of Italy, the Netherlands, Rhenish provinces, Prussia, Belgium, the Ardennes, the tertiary districts of Nassau, the volcanic districts of the Rhine and Moselle. In 1829 he completed his survey of the counties of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex. In 1830 he visited the chalk districts and older formations of the frontiers of France and Belgium. Then followed Dorsetshire, West of England, Isle of Wight, Sussex, Southwest of England, the coal beds of the Boulonnais, the North of France, the Channel Islands and Isle of Portland, the new red sandstone of Staffordshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire, the Silurian old red sandstone and coal districts of Shropshire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire, and South Wales. In 1830 and 1831 he was present during many of the stirring scenes of the Belgian War of Independence and the last siege of Antwerp; at which time also he made the acquaintance of the lady who soon after became his wife, a daughter of Dr. Stather, a gentleman of VOL. XXVIII. a position in the Island of Nevis. This lady, with a son and two daughters, survives him. In 1833 he was presented to a small vicarage near Poole, where in addition to his clerical duties he discharged the functions of a magistrate. His ardour in pursuit of travel and geology exposed him to a severe illness which culminated in rheumatic fever, which so crippled him that he was induced in 1839 to try the effects of a warmer climate, and as the investigation of a new country had peculiar charms, he resolved to visit the colony of New South Wales, which in those days included what are now Victoria and Queensland. He had also a kind of special mission from his brother geologists to investigate the carboniferous formation of Australia. The ship in which he was making the voyage touched at the Cape of Good Hope, and Mr. Clarke seized the opportunity of making a survey of and report upon the geology about Cape Town. From the time he landed in Australia, in 1859, to the day of his death, he never ceased pushing forward his researches into the unknown regions which lay before him. It is no exaggeration to state that he knew every inch of the greater part of New South Wales proper, and from constant investigation of reports by explorers and others he knew the general character and geography, almost topography, of Australasia. The modest income which is supposed to be the lot of those who undertake the duties of a clergyman, and which in the case of Mr. Clarke, averaged, up to 1861, less than £200 per annum, inclusive of the grant of £1,000 made in recognition of his services, prevented his issuing well illustrated works. Most of his publications appeared in a very modest form, either as Parliamentary papers, newspaper letters, or as papers in the various scientific journals. Latterly, the Government Printing Office offered some relief from the expense of publication, and the last edition of his last work is creditable to that establishment. The Government always had a high appreciation of his services, and never failed when in difficulties to utilise his knowledge. Thus in 1851, when the Government wished to have a proper report upon the mineral resources of the country, no fitter person could be found. The neighbouring colonies also appealed to Mr. Clarke upon all matters of a geological nature. His name was in fact a "household word " all over Australasia. It is proved beyond controversy that he ascertained the auriferous nature of the country in 1841, ten years before the popular date of 1851. The main conclusions at which Mr. Clarke arrived from his geological investigations were, that matrix gold was the thing to be looked for, and that the carboniferous deposits of the main seams in New South Wales were Paleozoic. To a geologist of Europe, with libraries of reference in every city. and with rapid means of locomotion and comfortable quarters every where, the difficulties of Australian geology are not apparent. When Mr. Clarke set out on his explorations there was no other means of travel but horses, with pack-horses for provisions, tents, and instruments. In some parts of the country there were no roads or landmarks of any kind, and the maps of the district were nearly useless, as being only skeleton outlines of boundaries. He had to carry on his work single-handed, and gradually to form his own library. Mr. Clarke's travels extended to Tasmania, Victoria, and Queensland, and he has written various exhaustive reports relating to these countries. His writings have guided persons to various profitable gold mines, and the successful tin industries of Australia and Tasmania have been commenced from indications furnished by him. In 1863 the Legislature of New South Wales voted Mr. Clarke £3,000, at a time when his various ailments seemed coming to a head, to enable him to secure a little comfort in his old age; but since that time his "pen of a ready writer" has never been weary; and we are almost tempted to say that his latter years have surpassed the former, for his facts seemed to have accumulated more quickly, and his experience being, of course, more matured, enabled him to seize upon the more salient points of the geology of the country. The fruit of his labours during this part of his life consists of a geological map of the whole colony, which has been compiled from his note-books and memoranda. Up to 1870 he never ceased from the work of his sacred calling, even when on his explorations; but on 1st October of that year, his increasing infirmities obliged him to retire from his parochial labours. He was thus in a position to avail himself of the improved locomotion afforded by the railways to revisit his old haunts, and to visit other places of interest, so as to fill up gaps in his former works. He was an indefatigable observer of meteorological facts and of general natural history. Mr. Clarke was elected F.G.S. in 1826. He was a member of the Geological Society of France, and held a diploma from the Imperial and Royal Geological Institution of Austria, F.R.G.S., and one of the early Fellows of the Zoological Society. Mr. Clarke contributed largely to the periodical literature of England prior to 1839, and his poetical effusions are by no means undeserving of praise. In 1876 he was elected F.R.S., and in 1877 he was awarded the Murchison Medal of the Geological Society of London. The terms in which the award was made express the results of his geological labours in Australia. The excessive heat of March, 1878, combined with the labour of preparing a new edition of " Sedimentary Formations of New South Wales," proved too much for Mr. Clarke's strength. He was seized with paralysis on the 16th of that month; and though he rallied, so |