llyihography and the Art of Nuvigaiion, 405 



It may be seen, by this instance, how much the Grovernment 

 Jias erred in suppressing the office of inspector of thermal wa- 

 ters, under the idea that nothing in that department now re- 

 mained to be discovered. I now add, in conclusion, that the 

 data on which my plan of experiment is founded, have been de- 

 rived from a manuscript memoir presented fifteen years ago to 

 the Academy by Dr Robert, which has not, in my opinion, met 

 with that attention which it deserves. 



{To be continued.) 



Abstract of an Address delivered on presenting the Keith MedaU 

 adjudged by the Council of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 

 to Professor Forbes, frr his Experiments on the Polariza- 

 tion of Heat. By Dr Hope, Vice-President of the Society.* 



The prize founded by our late estimable associate Mr Keith, 

 whose ingenious contrivan(Jfes for self-registering thermometers 

 and barometers are recorded in our Transactions, is, by the re- 

 gulation of his Trustees, to be adjudged biennially for the most 

 important discovery communicated to the Royal Society, or in 

 the event of such being wanting, for the best paper which shall 

 have been presented to the Society in the space of two years on 

 a scientific subject. The Council, in discharge of the powers 

 vested in them, have awarded unanimously the Keith prize for 

 the last biennial period, to Professor Forbes, for his paper " On 

 the Refraction and Polarization of Heat,"" which they consider 

 to come under their class of communications, which contain dis- 

 coveries important to science. , ^^jj ?, 



The Vice-president then observed, that the subject of lieat is 

 one so important to man, and so intimately connected with a va- 

 riety of natural phenomena, that it has not failed to command 

 no small degree of attention in all ages. That an intimate con- 

 nexion subsists between Heat and Light, and that much discord- 

 ance of opinion has subsisted respecting the nature of both. He 



• The abore notice of Professor Forbes* important discoveries, for which 

 the Keith Prize of the Royal Society of Edinburgh has been adjudged, is 

 printed by order of the Council, and is taken from tlie lleport of the " Pro- 

 ceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh," 



VOL. XX. Ko. XL. — AriiiL 1836, d d 



