Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London - University Library

LIXNE.IN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 3
WiLLUAii Francis, Ph.D. (Giessen, 1842), F.R.A.S. (1851), F.G.S.
(1859), became an Associate of the Chemical Society in 1841, a
Fellow of that Society in 1842, and a Fellow of the Physical
Society in 1876. Bnt of all the learned Societies to which he
belonged our own claimed him for the longest portion of his protracted
life. The Linneau honoured him with the Associateship
on the 21st of February, 1837, and as he was born Feb. 16, 1817,
he must have been elected when only a few days over twenty
years of age. On Jan. 16, 1844, he was elected to the Fellowship
of this Society, which he held for over sixty years, dying on
Jan. 19, 1904.'
As a student of Chemistry and Entomology, as a translator of
scientific writings, as partner ia a printing firm famous for its
polyglot accuracy, as joint founder, editor, and publisher of learned
serials \Ahich enjoy a world-wide reputation and a large measure
of perennial value. Dr. Francis may be said to have devoted practically
his whole life to the service of science. He learned printing
under Eichard Taylor, who himself adopted the profession of a
printer " principally at the suggestion of Sir James Edward Smith,
the founder of the Linnean Society, and a very intimate friend of
his parents " (Journ. of Proc. L. S. p. xxxvii, 1859). E. Taylor,
on the 18th of May, 1803, at the age of twenty-two, established
himself in partnership with his father. It was not till ] 852 that
he took into partnership his former apprentice, W. Francis, who
has so recently left our ranks. But between them, without a
break, these two eminent scientific printers, Taylor and Francis,
have had a business career all but completely synchronising with
the corporate life of this Society from its original Charter at the
opening of the nineteenth century down to the Supplemental
Charter of to-day. Of the serials whicli they jointly planned and
vigorously maintained the one most widely known is probably that
which began its course in 1838 as the ' Annals of iS'atural History.'
Charles Darwin, at a time when the state of his health to a great
degree debarred him from the study of books, says, in a letter to
J. D. Hooker, " I confine my reading to a quarter or half hour
per day in skimming through the back volumes of the ' Annals
and Magazine of Natural History,' and find much that interests
me " (Life and Letters, edited by his son, Francis Darwin, vol. iii.
p. 40). Among zoologists, iu particular, there can indeed be very
few who will not from time to time be almost under a necessity of
consulting these volumes, very few who will not, beyond the
immediate necessity, find something woi'th studying and recalHng
to mind in this long record of research and controversy, embracing
in a manner at once liberal and judicious the almost innumerable
branches of their subject. It is true that in maintaining the
standard of the magazine Dr. Francis was associated with succes-
sive groups of co-editors greatly distinguished for their several
attainments. He «as their wortliy colleague.
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