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gical Journal a valuable paper, in which he has made known the 

 presence of tertiary strata abounding with vegetable remains, in 

 districts now rendered sterile by the extreme cold. Altogether I 

 think there can be no doubt that the merits of Sir John Richardson, 

 as a philosophical naturalist, are of a very high order. 



It is not within our province to reward his other claims to distinc- 

 tion ; but all will rejoice, that in the conscientious discharge of a 

 delicate and important duty, the Council have been able to bestow a 

 Medal on one, who has earned the applause of all who have watched 

 his career, for his patient endurance and fortitude under incredible 

 hardships in his first Arctic Expedition in company with Franklin, 

 and again for his chivalrous self-devotion in the cause of friendship 

 and science combined, at a period of life when most men resolve to 

 rest from their labours, or at least would hesitate to encounter the 

 fatigues and dangers of a Polar Expedition, the anticipation of which 

 must have been more appalling to one, who had bitter experience of 

 their painful reality. 



SIR J. RICHARDSON, 



Accept this Medal as a token of our respect for your scientific 

 labours and character. 



The other Royal Medal has been awarded to Professor Thomson, 

 whose labours in the cause of science are well known to scientific 

 men. Yet the brief reference which can now be made to the Memoirs 

 which he has written, will convey but an imperfect notion of the 

 services which he has rendered ; for the zeal with which he is inspired, 

 his clear apprehension of mathematical and physical truths, and the 

 freedom with which he communicates his ideas, have powerfully con- 

 tributed to stimulate others in the pursuit of truth, and direct them 

 into right paths. Shortly after graduating in the University of Cam- 

 bridge he undertook the task of editing the Cambridge Mathematical 

 Journal, which under his auspices was placed on an enlarged basis, 

 under the title of the ' Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal,' 

 and is well known to the mathematicians of Europe. This Journal, 

 as well as its predecessor the ' Cambridge Mathematical Journal,' 

 is enriched by numerous contributions from the pen of Professor 

 Thomson on various subjects, especially the mathematical theories 



