xxvn- 



ELEVENTH AWARD OF THE SOUTH AFRICA MEDAL 



AND GRANT. 



(Fund raised bv Members of the British Associaticm in com- 

 memoration of their visit to South Africa I'n. 1905.) 



After the conclusion of the Presidential Address in the Sel- 

 borne Hall. Johannesburg, on Monday, July 8, 1918, the Presi- 

 dent, Dr. C. F. Juritz, handed the South Africa Medal, together 

 with the customary grant of £50, to Mr. Robert Thorburn 

 Ayton Innes, F.R.S.E., F.R.A.S., Union Astronomer. In 

 making this presentation the President said: — 



Mr. Innes occupies an assured place as one of the foremost 

 astronomers of the day, especially in such branches of research 

 as the astronomy of double and variable stars. To the advance 

 of knowledge in these subjects he has not only contributed ex- 

 tensively and continuously by his own observations, but he has 

 also produced works which are considered to be of standard 

 rank by those who are intimately acquainted with the branches 

 of astronomical science just mentioned. 



In 1894 he published his first list of new double stars. This 

 list has since been followed by others, the number of independent 

 discoveries now standing at 1.125 pairs. 



It was as an enthusiastic amateur that Mr. Innes began 

 astronomical work in New South Wales, and much of his earlier 

 investigations in relation to variable stars and double stars was 

 recorded from time to time in the Monthly Notices of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society and in the Journal of the British Astro- 

 nomical Association. In those earlier days he also contributed to 

 the Proceedings of the Royal Astronomical Society papers relat- 

 ing to the secular perturbations of the earth's orbit. Mr. Innes' 

 method of computing these perturbations was a new adaptation of 

 (iauss's " elliptical ring "" method to m<')dern elliptical functions, 

 and is the briefest method available for the solution of the prob- 

 lem. His first contribution to the Astronomical Society's Pro- 

 ceedings was made just 30 years ago. and its object was to point 

 out an error in Le Verrier's tables. 



Conjointly with Gale, one of the best-known and most skilful 

 observers of New South Wales, he was instrumental in founding 

 the New South Wales Branch of the British Astronomical Asso- 

 ciation. 



In 1896 he came to South Africa to join the staff of the 

 Royal Observatory at Capetown, and laboured at the revision 

 of the Cape Photographic Durchmusterung. Of his services in 

 this direction Sir David Gill spoke as follows in his introduction 

 to the last volume of the Durchmusterung: — 



" Mr. R. T. A. Innes has, as a labour of love, devoted him- 

 self since April. 1896, to the work of revision which is sum- 

 marized in the introduction." 



