Astronomical Society, 383 



more so ; and it is cheering to indulge the pleasing reflection, that the 

 calls thus made upon them will not be unavailing. 



(The President then addressed the meeting on the subject of the 

 award of the Medals, as follows : — ) 



Gentlemen, — In pursuance of the 1 award of your Council, which 

 you have just heard, I have now to call your attention to the subject 

 of the honorary marks of this Society's approbation, which it is part 

 of our business at this meeting to bestow. The selection of objects 

 on which such distinction may most deservingly and most usefully 

 be conferred, has been, in this instance, of much interest and some 

 difficulty, — not from a paucity of claims, but from their variety and 

 magnitude. On all sides, both abroad and at home, the spirit of 

 Astronomical research and discovery has been diligently alive. The 

 great work which has been commenced on the Continent, for the de- 

 termination of the places of all the stars of our hemisphere in zones, 

 has been continued with a patient ardour to which no words can do 

 justice. — The heavens have been ransacked for double stars j and 

 the results of the search, developing a most rich and unlooked-for 

 harvest of striking discoveries, being the first fruits of the great te- 

 lescope of Fraunhofer, have been consigned to immortality, in a 

 work which does honour to its age and nation, and which has already 

 been brilliantly rewarded in another quarter. The ingenuity of one 

 of our own countrymen, has placed new, simple and powerful means 

 in the hands of observers, for verifying the stability of their instru- 

 ments, and determining their fluctuations. And in every quarter, 

 to go no further in this detail, an activity worthy of the high ends 

 and dignity of our science, has been remarkably displayed. Among 

 so many important labours, however, some of which are yet awaiting 

 their final completion, or receiving the last touches of their authors, 

 the attention of your Council has been fixed, by the imposing mass 

 of valuable observations which has emanated during a series of years, 

 from the Observatory at Paramatta, established ,by the late governor 

 of the colony of New South Wales, Sir Thomas Macdougal Brisbane, 

 one of our Vice-Presidents, long distinguished among us by his ar- 

 dent love of Astronomy, and an intimate familiarity both with its 

 theory and practice. 



Nothing can be more interesting in the eyes of an European as- 

 tronomer, especially to those who*se field of research, like our own, 

 is limited by a considerable northern latitude, — than the southern 

 hemisphere, where a new heaven, as well as a new earth, is offered 

 to his speculations ; and where the distance, the novelty, and the 

 grandeur of the scenes thus laid open to human inquiry, lend a cha- 

 racter almost romantic to their pursuit. 



A celestial surface equal to a fourth part of the whole area of the 

 heavens, which is here for ever concealed from our sight, or whose 

 extreme borders at least, if visible, are only feebly seen through the 

 smoky vapours of our horizon, — affords to our antipodes the splendid 

 prospect of constellations different from ours, and excelling them in 

 brilliancy and richness. The vivid beauty of the Southern Cross has 



been 



