The gold-headed cane . Royal So-ciety, we find the names of many distinguishedPhysicians, as Ent, Glisson, Merret, Willis,Croone, Needham, Whistler; but the honourwas reserved for Sir Hans Sloane to be thefirst Medical President. He had been chosenits Secretary, in 1693, when he revived thepublication of the Transactions, which hadbeen for some years suspended: the first actof his Presidency was to make a present of100 guineas to the Society, and of a bust oftheir founder, Charles II. He continued inthat office fourteen years, and did not resignthe chair till the age of eighty: how fit he wast
The gold-headed cane . Royal So-ciety, we find the names of many distinguishedPhysicians, as Ent, Glisson, Merret, Willis,Croone, Needham, Whistler; but the honourwas reserved for Sir Hans Sloane to be thefirst Medical President. He had been chosenits Secretary, in 1693, when he revived thepublication of the Transactions, which hadbeen for some years suspended: the first actof his Presidency was to make a present of100 guineas to the Society, and of a bust oftheir founder, Charles II. He continued inthat office fourteen years, and did not resignthe chair till the age of eighty: how fit he wasto preside over the interests of science mustappear from what has already been said ofhim: and if I might be allowed to anticipatesome fifty years, and allude to another Phy-sician who was raised to the same dignity,there will be no reason to blush for the repu-tation of physic. Sir John Pringle was elected President ofthe Royal Society in 1772; in which office hecontinued only six years; but if the volumes of MEAD. 141. Statue of Sir Hans Sloane, by Rysbrach, in theApothecaries Garden, Chelsea. 142 MEAD. Transactions, published during that time, beexamined, they will be found to contain many-memorable papers: among others, Dr. Maske-lynes experiments at Schehallien, with deductions from them—The experi-ments of Sir G. Shuckburgh Evelyn and ofGeneral Roy to establish correct formulas formeasuring heights by the barometer—The re-port of the Committee to determine theproper method of graduating thermometers—Experiments to ascertain the freezing pointof mercury. Pringle was the first Presidentwho made a set speech on the delivery of theCopley Medals, and his discourses, which weremade on rather celebrated occasions, embracemany topics of interest, and show his acquaint-ance with the history of philosophy. Theywere six in number, the four first of whichwere, To Priestley, for his Paper on differentkinds of Air. To Walsh, for his Experiments on Elec-tricity. To Maske
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