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present ; but they will, I doubt not, in due time be communicated 

 to the public. 



The greatest honour which the Royal Society has to bestow, 

 namely the Copley Medal, has been awarded to Professor Wilhelm 

 Eduard Weber of Gottingen, foreign member of the Royal Society, 

 for his investigations contained in his ' Maasbestimmungen ' and 

 other researches in electricity, magnetism, acoustics, &c. 



The first work in which Professor Weber was engaged was ' The 

 Theory of Undulations,' published in conjunction with his brother 

 Ernest in 1825. This work is still one of standard authority. It 

 contains not only a complete account of all that was previously known 

 on the subject of waves in water, but is the repository of many original 

 and important experiments throwing light on this subject. The 

 volume contains also many valuable investigations in acoustics. 

 Subsequently to this, Professor Weber communicated to Poggendorff's 

 ' Annalen ' numerous memoirs containing his further observations in 

 acoustics, among which were his experiments on the longitudinal 

 vibration of rods and strings ; on reed organ-pipes ; on grave har- 

 monic sounds ; and also his method of determining the specific heat of 

 bodies by their sonorous vibrations. In this department of physical 

 science he has been a worthy coadjutor of Chladni and Savart. 



In association with his brother Edward, then Anatomical Prosector 

 in Leipsic, he in 1835 published the details of an anatomical, physical, 

 and mathematical investigation of the mechanism of the human organs 

 of locomotion, one result of which was the promulgation of a theory 

 of animal progression more nearly in accordance with observed facts 

 than any that had been proposed previously. 



On his association with M. Gauss in the Magnetic Observatory at 

 Gottingen, Professor Weber devoted himself almost exclusively to the 

 subject of magnetism and electricity. The annual volumes of the 

 * Results of the Observations of the Magnetic Union,' published by 

 these eminent philosophers between 1838 and 1843, contain the 

 description of several new instruments, some of which have been the 

 models of those which are now used in all observatories. They include 

 also a great variety of important original researches. 



It ought not to be omitted that the researches of Gauss and Weber 

 with reference to the transmission of electric signals did more to 



