Abstract
THE foundation of the Bakerian Lecture, to be delivered to-day at the Royal Society by Prof. Thorpe, F.R.S., and Mr. J. W. Rodger, although not so ancient as that of the Croonian, is yet of respectable antiquity. Established during the presidency of Sir John Pringle, the predecessor of Sir Joseph Banks, it has its origin in the bequest, in. 1774, by Henry Baker, antiquary, naturalist, and Fellow of the Society, of the sum of one hundred pounds, the interest of which is directed to be applied for an oration, or discourse, to be spoken or read yearly by a Fellow on some subject in natural history or experimental philosophy. The forfeiture of the bequest is contingent on the lecture failing to be delivered in any one year. The founder of this lecture was himself a man of considerable parts, and, besides being the author of numerous memoirs in the Philosophical Transactions published two treatises on the microscope, and some poetical works. He was elected into the Royal Society in I740 and in 1744 was awarded the Copley medal. He married the youngest daughter of Daniel De Foe. The first lecture under the bequest was given in 1775 by Mr. Peter Woulfe, the subject being “Experiments made in order to ascertain the nature of some mineral substances, and in particular to see how far the acids of sea-salt and of vitriol contribute to mineralise metallic and other substances.”
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Notes. Nature 49, 392–397 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049392b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049392b0