produced the text books of mathematical formulae which bear his name. Not
a little of the contents of his works can claim the merit of
originality, and where he has drawn upon previously ascertained facts,
he has carried out his plan in such an able and judicious manner as to
secure for his publications the confidence of the whole profession.
Although each of his works is, in its way, equally valuable, the "Manual
of Applied Mechanics," which forms the real basis of the others, maybe
regarded as the standard, and so universal has its use become that the
young engineer who has not mastered its contents is considered to have
learned only half of his profession.

With his ample and varied experience in the qualities and requirements
of sea-going vessels, Mr. Rankine was very appropriately selected a few
months ago as one of the members of the Committee on Designs for Ships
of War. This, we may add, is not the only instance in which he has been
entrusted by Government with a responsible and honourable commission.
For a number of years Mr. Rankine has held the honorary post of
Consulting Engineer to the Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland. In 1859 he raised the Glasgow University Company of Rifle
Volunteers, and served with that corps as Captain and Major for nearly
five years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and
Edinburgh; an LL.D. of Dublin University; and a member of several
learned societies, including the British Association for the Advancement
of Science, over the Mechanical Section of which he has more than once
been called to preside.

Special reference should be made to Professor Rankine's connection with
the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, with which the Association of
Shipbuilders was ultimately incorporated. Of that Society Mr. Rankin was
an earnest promoter, and he was suitably elected to be its first
president. In recognition of the services which he rendered to the cause
of mechanical science generally, and to this Institution in particular,
he was presented with his bust at a conversazione held in the
Corporation Galleries on 19th August, 1870, when the North of England
Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers held a series of joint
meetings with the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.
The presentation was made by Mr. David Rowan, president, who read on the
occasion an address prepared by the Council of the Association, in which
the following passage