37 



before his contemporaries justly estimated and began to apply the 

 principles which he had introduced. 



But there is another side from which these researches must be 

 viewed. Few investigations in Organic Chemistry have been fraught 

 with more important consequences to the industrial arts than these 

 which we are now considering. New methods of obtaining hard and 

 valuable fats from oils of low price have been introduced, and the 

 method of manufacture adopted for the better descriptions of candles 

 has been entirely altered. A new branch of industry has indeed 

 been created by these researches, since it is to them that we owe the 

 introduction of what are known as stearine or composite candles. 



The second important subject with which the name of M. Che- 

 vreul is permanently connected, is that of the contrast of Colours. 

 His investigation upon this subject has, like his earlier one upon the 

 fats, been regarded by all subsequent inquirers as the classical work 

 upon the series of phenomena to which it relates. In duly appre- 

 ciating the importance of these inquiries, it is necessary to consider 

 both their purely scientific value and their direct practical bearing 

 upon the art of the silk-dyer and the calico-printer, to whom they 

 have afforded invaluable assistance, by the establishment of fixed 

 rules to guide them in the selection of suitable and harmoniously^ 

 contrasted tints, upon which so much of the beauty of their different 

 fabrics depends. 



PROFESSOR MILLER, 



Transmit this Medal to M. Chevreul, as the best proof which we 

 can give of the value which we attach to his discoveries ; and express 

 to him the gratification with which we have learnt that he is still 

 engaged in the prosecution of scientific labours ; and our hope that 

 his life will be prolonged to enable him to continue them, and 

 enjoy the honour he has so deservedly obtained. 



One of the Royal Medals has been awarded to Dr. Frarikland. 



In the year 1846, the question of the constitution of the alcohols 

 and certain allied organic bodies excited the deepest attention among 

 chemists. Dr. Kolbe had succeeded, by a most ingenious electro- 

 lytic process, in isolating the hitherto hypothetical radicals, valyl and 

 methyl ; but the indirect nature of the reactions, by which these radi- 



