284 



Dr. Suerman,* to which allusion has been made, they seem (as has 

 been said) to confirm as closely as could be expected, under the differing 

 circumstances of the experiments, the results of Dr. Apjohn ; of whose 

 labours, indeed, that eminent foreigner has spoken in the most hand- 

 some terms, and in favour of whom he has freely waived, upon this 

 subject, all contest for priority. But even if among the many per- 

 sons who now are cultivating science in many distant countries, and 

 whose results are sometimes long in coming to the knowledge of 

 each other, it should be found that some one has anticipated our 

 countryman and brother academician in the pubHcation or invention 

 of the method which I have endeavoured briefly to describe to you, or 

 if, on the other hand, his own future reflections and experiments, or 

 those of any other person, shall indicate hereafter the necessity of any 

 new improvement, your Council still will have no cause to regret that 

 they have adjudged the present distinction tcf apaper which contains 

 so much of independent thought, and so much of positive merit. 



[The President then delivered the Medal to Doctor Apjohn, 

 addressing him as folloivs,'] 



Doctor Apjohn, 



In the name of the Royal Irish Academy, I present to you this 

 Medal, for your investigations respecting the specific heats of the 

 gases ; hoping that it will be received and valued by you, as attesting 

 our sense of the services which you have already rendered to that 

 important and delicate department of physical research ; and that it 

 will also be to you a stimulus and an encouragement to pursue the 

 same inquiry further still, so as to improve still more the results al- 

 ready obtained, and to establish other new ones ; and thus to connect, 

 more and more closely, your name and our Transactions with the 

 history of this part of Science. 



the known number 0,267 the quotient is the specific heat of the gas compared with 

 that of an equal volume of atmospheric air: and the sensible inequality of the 

 specific heats so found, for different simple gases, is the chief physical conclusion 

 of the paper. 



* It is proper to remember that Dr. Suerman published his Dissertation without 

 having seen the last and most correct results of Dr. Apjohn, contained in the 

 present prize Essay. This remark applies particularly to the specific heat of 

 hydrogen. 



