461 



The time has arrived for my resigning into your hands the office 

 to which you were pleased to elect me three years ago. This has 

 not only been the greatest honour which has ever been bestowed on 

 me, but it has also been one of the most gratifying circumstances of 

 my life, to have received such a testimony of the good opinion of 

 individuals so distinguished for their genius and knowledge as the 

 Fellows of the Royal Society of London. I have sincerely to 

 thank not only the other Officers, but the Fellows generally for nu- 

 merous marks of attention and kindness, of which I am all the more 

 sensible in consequence of the peculiar circumstances under which I 

 have been placed. 



The Copley Medal has been awarded to Professor Louis Agassiz 

 of Boston, in the United States, for the eminent services which he 

 has rendered to various branches of physical science by the incessant 

 labours of more than thirty years of scientific activity. 



Commencing his career as a zoologist, Professor Agassiz early 

 turned his attention to Ichthyology, and his 'Histoire Naturelle 

 des Poissons d'eau douce' not only was in itself a very valuable work, 

 but doubtless led the way to the still more important services which 

 Professor Agassiz was destined to render to the same department of 

 natural history not the least of which was the great step in ichthyo- 

 logical classification, made by the establishment of the order of 

 Ganoids, a group which has now taken a permanent place in the 

 Systema Naturae. 



The ' Monographic d'Echinodermes,' published between the years 

 1838 and 1842, and the ' Nomenclator Zoologicus,' which appeared 

 in the latter year contemporaneously with other investigations 

 of quite a different character, need only be mentioned to bear 

 witness to the remarkable combination of originality, industry, and 

 versatility which characterizes their author. To these excellent 

 qualities may be added tenacity of purpose ; for after a long inter- 

 ruption, Professor Agassiz, on his removal to the United States, re- 

 sumed on a great scale those investigations of the lower forms of 

 animal life which had occupied his younger days. The results of 

 these inquiries, and those of his fellow-labourers Clark and Weinland, 

 are embodied in the magnificently illustrated monographs entitled 

 " Contributions to the Natural History _of the United States," works 



VOL. XL. 2 L 



