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of the globe, and there is evinced a just appreciation of facts and a 

 cautious spirit of induction, which make it one of the most important 

 contributions ever made by Botany to Geology. 



In the selection of the Himalaya as the field of further exploration, 

 you seem to have been guided by a sagacious perception of the re- 

 quirements of natural science ; and in the plain and artless narrative 

 of that journey, we know not whether most to admire, the industry 

 by which alone so much could have been done, the judicious selec- 

 tion of subjects of investigation, or the completeness of the results. 

 On that work, geographers, geologists, meteorologists, and bota- 

 nists, in fact, cultivators of all branchesof natural science, have pro- 

 nounced a unanimous verdict, which may be best summed up in the 

 words of the illustrious Humboldt, the greatest of scientific travellers, 

 as " a perfect treasure of important observations, in which a pro- 

 digious extent of previous knowledge is brought to bear upon every 

 topic, and which is marked with great sagacity and moderation in 

 all the views brought forward." 



DR. HOFMANN, 



A Royal Medal has been awarded to you, " for your Memoirs on 

 the molecular constitution of the Organic Bases, contained in the 

 Philosophical Transactions, and the Transactions of the Chemical 

 Society." 



The long series of researches which are acknowledged in the 

 present award, were commenced by your inquiries, published in 

 1844, on the volatile bases contained in coal-gas naphtha, in which 

 you recognized aniline, a base previously obtained from indigo, and 

 leucoline, likewise derived from the decomposition of quinine, 

 cinchonine, and strychnine. In consequence of its extremely de- 

 finite character, aniline was selected by you as the type of volatile 

 bases, and investigated in all directions, with singular perseverance 

 and success. A variety of new compounds were thus obtained, 

 bearing a fixed relation to the primitive body, such as chloraniline, 

 bromaniline, nitraniline, melaniline, &c. From these researches, 

 and the facts supplied by other investigators, you were gradually 

 led to a conception of the common constitution of this class of com- 

 pounds, and obtained the means of producing substances of a 

 similar constitution to an almost unlimited extent. Oxide of am- 



