LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDON. 79 



Herr Evitfeldt, in accepting the medal, stated that the Nor- 

 wegian Minister himself would have been pleased to be present, 

 but having only recently arrived in London, he had not yet 

 been x*eceived in audience by His Majesty the King, and was 

 consequently debarred from attending. 



Turning to Prof. E. A. Minciiix, the President said : — 



Prof. Edward Alfred Minchin, 



It is a great pleasure to me to present to you, on behalf of the 

 Society, the first Trail Award, generously founded by my friend 

 Prof. Trail, " with the object of encouraging study that throws 

 light on the substance known to us as Protoplasm, or on what 

 may, in the progress of knowledge, be regarded in a corresponding 

 way as the physical basis of life."' 



Your work, in various directions, has done and is doing much 

 to throw new light on the morphology and developmental activities 

 of the living substance of animal cells. You have made contribu- 

 tions of fuiidainental importance to our knowledge of the minute 

 structure and development of the Calcareous Sponges. You have 

 discovered the remarkable mode of development of those singular 

 ■structures the calcareous sponge-spicules, and in addition to your 

 valuable original memoirs on the group, you have written the 

 very able account of these organisms in Sir Ray Lankester's great 

 Text-book of Zoology. 



You have also published much work of the utmost importance 

 on the parasitic Protozoa, especially the Trypanosomes, a field of 

 investigation of momentous practical signiticance as well as of 

 the highest scientific intex'est. In furtherance of these studies 

 jou made an expedition to Uganda, to study the problem of 

 Sleeping Sickness under the auspices of the Royal Societv. 



You have written a masterly treatise on the Sporozoa, for the 

 Text-book already referred to, and in addition to all your own 

 investigations, have rendered a further service to biological science 

 by your translation of Biitschli's classical work on Protoplasm. 



No one could more fittingly be the first recipient of the Trail 

 Award, wliich I now present to you, for the recognition and en- 

 ■couragement of the study of the living substance of organisms. 



Professor Mincuin replied as follows : — 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, 



I desire to express my deep sense of gratitude both to the 

 Founder of the Trail Award for his generous benefaction, and to 

 the Council of the Linneau Society for the honour they have done 

 me in conferring the Award upon me. It adds very greatly to 

 the pleasure and pride which I feel in receiving it, that the 

 selection has been made by a body so distinguished and honourable 

 as the Council of the Linnean Society. 



The Trail Award is intended to encourage and promote the 



