total cost was 40007., which was entirely defrayed by the liberality of George the Third.

After the award of the king's pension, Sir William Herschel fixed his residence at Slough, near Windsor, his family consisting at first of one of his brothers, and his sister, Miss Caroline Herschel, who was his coadjutor and assistant in his computations and reductions, and was also actively employed in astronomical observation, being the discoverer of more than one comet. Herschel married a widow lady, Mrs. Mary Pitt, and left one son, the present Sir John, whose name has long been known to the public as one of the most active and successful adherents of science that our day has produced.

Dr. J. D. Forbes thus sums up the philosophical character of Sir William Herschel :

“He united, in a remarkable degree, the resolute industry which distinguishes the Germans, with the ardour and constancy which has been thought characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon. From his native country he brought with him the boldness of speculation which has long distinguished it, and it is probable that he had also a vigorous and even poetical imagination. Yet he was ever impatient until he had brought his conjectures to the test of experiment, and observation of the most uncompromising kind. He delighted to give his data a numerical character, and where this was (by their nature) impossible, he confirmed his descriptions by reiterated observation, in different states of weather, with different telescopes, apertures, and magnifying powers; and with praiseworthy fidelity he enabled his readers to form their own judgment of the character of his results, by copious and literal transcripts from his journals."

เ

Herschel died peacefully at Slough, at the advanced age of eighty-three, on the 23rd of August, 1822, only one year after the publication of his latest memoir in the Transactions of the then recently formed Astronomical Society, of which he was the first president. - Sixth Dissertation, by James David Forbes, D.C.L., F.R.S.,. &c., Encyclopædia Britt., eighth edition.-English Cyclopædia. London, 1856.— Weld's Hist. of Roy. Society.

EDWARD CHARLES HOWARD, F.R.S.

Born May 28, 1774. Died September 28, 1816.

Mr. Howard was born at Darnell, in the parish of Sheffield, and was the third brother of the twelfth Duke of Norfolk. His name has become intimately connected with the manufacture of sugar,

from the many improvements which he introduced into the old processes for the refinement of this most important article of commerce, and especially by his invention of the vacuum-pan.

It is related, on the authority of the late Mr. C. Few, that Mr. Howard's attention was drawn towards this subject by Mr. Charles Ellis, who, on the occasion of an immense quantity of West India sugar being in bond, and for which the revenue could find no market, recommended Howard, whose talents as a practical chemist Mr. Ellis was well acquainted with, to try and see if he could not relieve the Government warehouses, by converting the raw sugar into some kind of manure, and thus avoid the duty and render the article saleable. While experimenting for this purpose, Mr. Howard accidentally discovered his process of purifying sugar, for which, in conjunction with certain sugar refiners, he took out patents, and ultimately realized a considerable fortune.

Howard's vacuum-pan was patented in 1812; it depends for its action on the principle that liquids boil at temperatures dependent on the pressures they have to sustain. Thus water, under the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere (30 inches barometer), boils at 212° F., whereas in vacuo it will boil at about 80°; consequently a comparatively low temperature will effect the boiling of sugar-syrup in vacuo, evaporation will proceed far more safely than in the old process of heating the syrup in open pans, and the percentage of waste will be greatly reduced, rendering the manufacture highly profitable in a commercial point of view.

Mr. Howard died at the early age of forty-two, and was buried at St. Pancras, Middlesex. He left one son, and a daughter, Julia, who was married in the year 1829 to the Hon. Henry Stafford Jerningham, afterwards Lord Stafford.

CAPTAIN J. HUDDART, F.R.S.

Born Jan. 11, 1740. Died August 19, 1816.

His

Joseph Huddart was born at Allonby in Cumberland. Father, who was a shoemaker and farmer, desiring to give his son the best education in his power, sent him to a day-school kept by Mr. Wilson, the clergyman of the village. Here young Huddart acquired a knowledge of the elements of mathematics, including astronomy, sciences in which he attained great proficiency in after life. When quite a boy, Huddart gave indications of an original mind, combined with great industry and unwearied patience. Having fallen in with a treatise by Mungo Murray on ship building, he was

so pleased with its clear directions, that he set to work and succeeded, after immense labour and ingenuity, in making a model of a seventy-four gun-ship, with ribs, planks, and bolts complete. When engaged in herding his father's cows, he used to carry out into the country a desk of his own manufacture, employing his time in reading, and mathematical drawing and calculations.

As Huddart grew up he evinced a strong bias for a sea-faring life, and an event occurred in 1756 which decided his future career. In that year large shoals of herrings came into the Solway Frith, and the elder Huddart took advantage of the circumstance to trade in conjunction with a Herring Fishery Company, while his son took his place with others in the boats, and soon displayed so much skill and ability in their management that he became noted among his fellows for superiority of knowledge in nautical matters. Young Huddart continued more or less in this new employment until his father's death, in 1762, when he succeeded to a share in the fishery, and at once took the command of a sloop employed in carrying the salted herrings to Cork and other parts of Ireland, for the supply of the West India markets.

These voyages gave him a thorough knowledge of St. George's Channel, convinced him of the insufficiency of the charts then in use, and ultimately led to his making a complete survey of that sea, and to the subsequent publication of his own most valuable chart. In 1768 Huddart, with the assistance of his uncle, designed and built a vessel for himself, and named it the Patience, every timber in it having been moulded with his own hand. In this vessel he made his first voyage to North America, and continued to sail in her until the year 1771, when he was induced by Sir Richard Hotham, with whom he had become acquainted, to enter the East India Mercantile Marine, in which service he continued for many years, and realized a considerable independency.

Captain Huddart's scientific knowledge and high character introduced him into the Trinity House as an Elder Brother, and also into the Committee of the Ramsgate Harbour Trust, and into the London and East India Dock Directions. At the Trinity House all inquiries relating to lights, lighthouses and charts were chiefly referred to him, while the lighthouses on Hurst Point were built under his superintendence and immediate direction.

On retirement from the East India Company's service, Huddart engaged again in his favourite pursuit of ship building, making many practical experiments to determine the lines, which consistent with stability and capacity for stowage would give to vessels the greatest velocity through the water. But that which constitutes Captain Huddart's chief claim on the gratitude of posterity are his great improvements and inventions in the manufacture of Cordage; before his time nothing worthy of the name of machinery had been applied to rope-making, and to him was reserved the honour of

bringing the wonderful power of Watt's steam engine to bear upon this most important article of manufacture.

Captain Huddart's attention was first drawn towards the subject during a voyage from India to China through the Straits of Sunda, where the ship he commanded was frequently compelled to anchor. When the anchor was weighed, the outer yarns of the cable were often found to be broken, and on opening a piece of cable to find out the cause, Huddart's attention was forcibly drawn to the fact that rope as then manufactured, bore almost the entire strain on the outer yarns of the strands, from the yarns being originally of the same length, and the strand in the process of twisting becoming shortened. He determined to remedy this, and ultimately constructed a machine which, by means of what he called a register plate, gave to every yarn the same strain, and its proper position in the strand which was compressed through a tube into the desired form.

Government refusing to take up this valuable invention, a company was formed by Huddart's friends for the manufacture of rope upon his new principle. These gentlemen built a factory at Limehouse, which was established under the name of Huddart & Co.

Captain Huddart now devoted himself to the further development of his valuable invention; he contrived a registering machine whereby the yarns were formed as they came out of the tar-kettle' the tar being kept at the temperature (212-220° Fah.) he found by experiment to be sufficient for the required purpose, without injuring by too great heat the fibres of the rope.

He also constructed a laying machine, which gave the same length and twist to every strand, and an uniform angle and pressure to the rope or cable. These improvements involved the manufacture of much beautiful machinery, which was made after Huddart's design and under his own personal superintendance.*

Captain Huddart lived to an advanced old age, and even in his last illness his disposition to inquire into causes and effects did not forsake him, as his body gradually wasted away, he caused himself to be weighed from time to time, noting thereby the quantity of moisture which escaped by the breath and insensible perspiration. He died at Highbury Terrace, London, at the age of seventy six, and was interred in a vault under St. Martin's Church, in the Strand.-Memoir of Capt. Jos. Huddart, by Wm. Cotton, D.C.L. London, 1855.

*This machinery was constructed by John Rennie.-Mechanics' Magazine, Sept. 20, 1861.

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EDWARD JENNER, M.D., L.L.D., F.R.S., &c.

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE.

Born May 17, 1749. Died January 26, 1823.

Edward Jenner, who by his discovery of vaccination has preeminently acquired a right to the title of the "Benefactor of Mankind," was born at the vicarage house of Berkeley, in Gloucestershire, and was the third son of the Rev. Stephen Jenner, rector of Rockhampton, and vicar of Berkeley. Jenner's father died when he was only five years old, leaving him to be brought up under the care of his uncle. At eight years of age he was put to school at Wotton-under-Edge, from whence he was removed shortly afterwards to the care of Dr. Washborn, at Cirencester. Jenner early displayed that taste for natural history which afterwards formed so marked a feature in his character. Before he was nine years old he had made a collection of the nests of the dormouse, and when at Cirencester used to spend his hours of recreation in searching for the fossils which abound in that district.

After the completion of his scholastic education, Jenner removed to Sudbury, near Bristol, where he acquired the elements of surgery and pharmacy under Mr. Ludlow, an eminent surgeon in the neighbourhood. Having completed his term with this gentleman, he went to London and became a pupil of the celebrated John Hunter, in whose family he resided for two years, laying the foundation of an intimate friendship only broken by Hunter's death. Under the tuition of this distinguished anatomist he acquired an almost unrivalled skill in minute dissections and delicate injections of parts; and when, in the year 1771, Captain Cook returned from his first voyage of discovery, the valuable specimens of Natural History, which had been collected by Sir Joseph Banks, were in a great measure arranged and prepared by Jenner, who was recommended by Mr. Hunter for that purpose. In executing this task, he evinced so much dexterity and intelligence, that he was offered the post of Naturalist in the next expedition, which sailed in 1772. Jenner, however, refused the offer, and determined to fix his abode at the place of his birth. He returned to Berkeley when about twentyfour years old, and at once commenced practice as a country surgeon. His first attempts were very successful; and as he added to his professional skill the manners of a thorough gentleman, and the information of a scholar, he became a welcome guest in the most distinguished families. He was in the habit at this time of cultivating the art of poetry, and used to send his compositions to his friends in the ordinary interchange of literary correspondence. He was likewise clever at an epigram or a ballad, and had a natural