13'i Royal Society. 



able pride in maintaining the character of the Body whose Members 

 are to be constituted by their choice. 



In proceeding now, therefore, to call your attention, Gentlemen, to 

 the series of great men to whom those Medals have been awarded, 

 I shall not presume to state in detail the specific grounds upon which 

 the decisions of your Council were founded, but confine myself to 

 Uttle more than their enumeration in the order of time, feeling that it 

 would be unbecoming in me to attempt to assign them those stations 

 which they either have taken, or are destined hereafter to take, in 

 the temple of fame. 



The first name upon the list is that of Dr. John Dalton, a venera- 

 ble Philosopher, whose developement of the Atomic Theory and other 

 important labours and discoveries in physical science have, at the 

 eleventh hour, (I blush to own that it was not earlier,) first abroad, 

 and secondly at home, secured him that public recognition of his sci- 

 entific rank to which he has long been entitled. With him, Gen- 

 tlemen, posterity may be said to have already commenced, and though 

 full of years and honour, I rejoice to hear that he still retains the 

 same zeal and vigour in the pursuits of science which have carried 

 him forwards from his earliest youth in his career of discover}', in 

 spite of all the discouragements of confined means and of the most 

 laborious and depressing employments. It gives me great pleasure 

 to learn that His Majesty has lately expressed his Royal approbation 

 of his services to science by the grant of a pension, if not commen- 

 surate with his services, at least as considerable as the severity of 

 existing regulations will allow; though I cannot refrain from ex- 

 pressing on this occasion my regret at the very narrow limits within 

 which the munificence of the King and the generosity of the Nation 

 should be confined. 



The second Medal for the same year was awarded to Mr. Ivory, 

 the first of our mathematicians who transplanted to this country the 

 profound analytical science which LaGrange, Laplace, LeGendre, 

 Gauss and others upon the continent, had applied to the most im- 

 portant and sublime physical inquiries. The dignity of such inves- 

 tigations has not suffered by the association of Mr. Ivory's name 

 with them, and the Transactions of the Royal Society present fre- 

 quent and honourable records of his valuable labours. It is, how- 

 ever, a gratifying circumstance to find that Mr. Ivory is no longer a 

 solitary cultivator of these sublime sciences ; but that an English 

 School, of which he may be considered as the Father, is now rising, 

 and must continue to rise, whilst it boasts of such masters as our 

 Herschels and Airys, our Lubbocks and Hamiltons, and looks for- 

 ward to such disciples as they are likely to form. 



The Medal which was awarded to Sir Humphry Davy was a tri- 

 bute of respect to that great Philosopher towards the conclusion of 

 his labours. He had already retired from the Chair of the Royal 

 Society, under the admonition of those infirmities which were destined 

 too speedily to terminate his valuable life ; and the Council availed 

 themselves of the first opportunity of marking their sense of the ho- 

 nour which he had conferred upon his country by his brilliant electro- 



