60 Royal Society. 



advantage to all those who may then bring the practice into 

 beneficial use. 



Sir Humphry Davy having last year communicated a pa- 

 per to the Society in continuation of his former inductions and 

 generalization on chemical and electric energies, there cannot 

 be a doubt but that the only obstacle against his then re- 

 ceiving a Royal medal, on the first occasion that the Society 

 had it to bestow, was his occupying this chair. That obsta- 

 cle, unhappily for science, no longer exists ; and the Royal 

 Society take this earliest opportunity of testifying their high 

 estimation of these talents and of these labours which all Eu- 

 rope admires. We trust and hope, although our late President 

 has been induced by medical advice to retire from the agitation 

 of active public stations, that his most valuable life will be long 

 spared ; and that energies of mind may still be displayed to 

 this Society and to the civilized world, equal to those which 

 have heretofore rendered immortal the name of Davy. 



On delivering the Medal for M. Struve. 



In no science has progressive dilatation and expansion 

 been equally manifested as in astronomy. Limited at first to 

 observing the phases of the moon; to conjecturing the re- 

 turn of eclipses after certain periods; to arranging religious 

 festivals, or the times for agricultural labour by the heliacal 

 rising and setting of stars, — it has ultimately extended to 

 these stars themselves. 



A most eminent individual of our own times may be consi- 

 dered as the parent of sidereal astronomy. The late Sir Wil- 

 liam Herschel, having doubted the extent of the solar system, 

 leapt boldly beyond its comparatively narrow bounds, and 

 laid open to our view suns mutually revolving round each 

 other at distances from whence the orbit of the earth can 

 subtend no more than a physical point. The same piercing 

 eye distinguished between clustered stars, and spaces shining 

 from collections of nebulous matter, destined perhaps in the 

 course of ages to condense into a more solid form. These 

 sublime pursuits are now actively continued, I am most happy 

 to say, in our own country by a son worthy of such a father, 

 and by a gentleman who, uniting energy, ability, and perse- 

 verance, allows no one to run before him in whatever he un- 

 dertakes # . 



The same subject is also investigating on the continent of 

 Europe, with the attention and assiduity that it so well de- 



* Mr. South. 



serves, 



