Address of the President, Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., at the anniversary meeting on November 30, 1910

The year which has passed since our last Anniversary will be memorable in our annals for the losses which death has brought upon the Royal Society. First and most conspicuous is the decease of our Patron, His revered Majesty, King Edward VII. During his brief but eminently beneficent reign, His Majesty continued to manifest the same interest in the advancement of science which he had always shown before his accession to the Throne. Wales found many occasions to show his appreciation of science, and his interest in its progress. We feel confident that under his enlightened rule the advancement of Natural Knowledge will continue to receive his support and encouragement. On the list of Foreign Members of the Society we have thus to mourn the loss of no fewer than seven illustrious names. Of these there is none which we more deeply regret that of Alexander Agassiz. His frequent visits to Europe brought him into closer personal contact with the Fellows of the Royal Society than is usually possible for our Foreign Members. Only last summer he came once more among with apparently little diminution of his characteristic capacity for work. But it was his last public appearance, for he died a week or two afterwards on his homeward passage across the Atlantic.