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Art. XII. Proceedings of the Hoyal SoQiety. 



The meetings of the Royal Society were resumed on Thura-. 

 day the 8th of November, after the long vacation. At this and 

 the succeeding meeting the Cxoonian Lecture was read by Sir 

 Everard Home : it contained an account of the means by which 

 the eye adjusts itself to the distinct vision of near and remote 

 objects. 



Thursday., Nov. 22. The Bakerian Lecture by Captain 

 Edward Sabine, was read ; it contained an account of experi- 

 ments to determine the dip of the magnetic needle in Londoa 

 in August 1821, with remarks on the instruments usually 

 employed in such determinations. 



Friday, Nov. 30, being St, Andrew's day, the Society held 

 their anniversary meeting. At this meeting the President 

 announced the allotment of two of Sir Godfrey Copley's prize 

 medals to J. F. W. Herschel, Esq. and Captain Edward Sabine, 

 in a very appropriate and impressive discourse, of which the 

 following is an outline. 



The progress of discovery, said Sir Humphry, even when, 

 belonging to past times or distant countries, is always an 

 agreeable subject of contemplation to philosophical men, but 

 the pleasure derived from it is much higher when it arises 

 from the exertion of the talents of our own countrymen, when, 

 it has originated in our own body, and when there is the power 

 not only of acknowledging and rejoicing at it, but likewise of 

 distinguishing the persons to whom it is owing, by a permanent 

 mark of respect; he, therefore, had much satisfaction in announc-. 

 ing the decision of the Council of the Society, upon the present 

 occasion. The President then took a review of the labours of 

 Mr. Herschel, and more particularly of those which were con- 

 sidered as entitling him to the present mark of distinction. 

 He said, there was no branch of science more calculated to 

 awaken our admiration than that which Mr. Herschel had so 

 successfully cultivated : the sublime or transcendential geo-. 

 metry not only demonstrated the powers and resources of 

 human intellect, but also the wisdom and beauty of the laws 



