374 Astronomical Society. 



have now a character to maintain j for your name, but a few years 

 since confined to the narrow limits of a country village, is now known 

 throughout Europe j and that too by your own exertions. Receive 

 this medal, sir, as a pledge of our esteem— as, indeed, the highest 

 honour we have to offer. May it stimulate you to fresh exertions in 

 the cause of your favourite science ; and on your return from India 

 to your native home, may the Astronomer of Madras be as honour- 

 ably distinguished, as is this day the Assistant of the Royal Obser- 

 vatory. 



{The President then resumed his address to the Members as fol- 

 lows : — ) 



The second medal has been adjudged to Professor Encke, for the 

 Berlin Ephemeriswhich bears his name. Experience has long shown, 

 that an astronomical ephemeris is almost as necessary an appendage 

 to an observatory as are the instruments tliemselves ; accordingly we 

 find that some one, more or less perfect, has been in the hands of 

 every astronomer, since astronomy has been pursued in a systematic 

 manner. The first which appears in this country at all deserving the 

 name of an astronomical ephemeris was that of Vincent Wing, and 

 was used by Flamsteed : it, however, was very imperfect, and Flam- 

 steed, whilst at Derby, transmitted to the Royal Society supplements 

 to it, containing notices of phaenomena not inserted in Wing's Ephe- 

 meris, and which were published from time to time in the Philoso- 

 phical Transactions. La Caille, about the year 1755, proposed one 

 upon a larger scale; but in 1767, on the recommendation of Dr. 

 Maskclvne, the Board of Longitude of Great Britain published the 

 Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, Dr.Maskelyne him- 

 self taking the superintendence of it. Its object was evidently two- 

 fold, since it contained, even when first published, much information not 

 wanted by the astronomer, and still viore not required by the seaman. 

 The Connoissance des Terns also was published much in the same style, 

 and was, as well as the Nautical Almanac, a manual not only for the 

 seaman, but also for the astronomer. The Berlin Ephemeris was 

 purely astronomical, but, like the Connoissance des Terns, contained, 

 in the shape of additions, much valuable astronomical information, 

 inserted by its highly respected editor, the much-lamented Bode. 

 But the Connoissance des Terns, compared with the Nautical Almanac, 

 had so fallen into disrepute, that, in the year 179.5, Gr^goire, now 

 EvSque de Blois, in the name of the Committees of Marine, of Finance, 

 and of Public Instruction, proposed to the National Convention the 

 establishment of a Board of Longitude, in imitation of the British 

 Board, and to which should be confided the publication of the Con- 

 noissance des Tems. From that time to the present it has been pub- 

 lished mth greater regularity, and in general about the same time as 

 the Nautical Almanac; for, from some cause or other, the latter has 

 not appeared so many years in advance as in the times of Maskelyne. 

 Considering that the work is sometimes wanted for long voyages of 

 discovery, its publication three or four years in advance, instead of 

 two years and a quarter, as at present, would certainly be desirable. 

 From the time of Maskelyne's editing the Nautical Almanac till his 



decease, 



