Before proceeding to read Dr Davy's paper, Professor Allman made the following remarks:—

The duty has devolved on me of being the medium through which the paper just announced should be communicated to the Society—a duty not unmixed with melancholy; for when the distinguished author of that paper had placed it in the hands of the Council, there was nothing to prevent our looking forward to a continuance of those labours with whose results the pages of your Transactions have been so often enriched. But the pen which had worked unwearyingly for nearly sixty years is at last still; and the paper now before you closes in for ever the earthly labours of its author.