1894.] President's Address. 51 



ROYAL MEDAL. 

 Professor Victor 'Horsley, F.R.S. 



A Royal Medal is awarded to Professor Victor Horsley, F.R.S. , 

 for his laborious and fruitful researches in physiology and pathology, 

 and particularly for those relating to the functions of the nervous 

 system and of the thyroid gland. His inquiries relating to the 

 former subject have been pursued for more than ten years, and 

 have been communicated to the Royal Society in a succession of 

 papers, the most important of which have been published in the 

 ' Philosophical Transactions.' The first of the series of researches 

 ('Phil. Trans.', 1888), which was conducted in co-operation with 

 Professor Schafer, and concerned the relation of a part of the cere- 

 bral cortex (the limbic lobe) to sensation, afforded a new confirmation 

 and extension of the doctrine of the localisation of cerebral function 

 now generally accepted. While this work was in progress, Professor 

 Horsley engaged with Dr. Beevor in a long and laborious series of 

 experiments, for the purpose of determining with the utmost attain- 

 able accuracy the nature of the muscular responses which are evoked 

 by stimulating the convolutions in the quadrumana. The results of 

 these researches were communicated in four papers, of which the first 

 three relate to the " cortical representations " of the movement of 

 the limbs, and of those of the tongue and face ('Phil. Trans.,' 

 1887 1890) ; the fourth to the channels (in the internal capsule) by 

 which the cortex exercises its influence on the rest of the nervous 

 system ('Phil. Trans.,' 1890). 



These experiments not only served to bring to light a number of 

 new facts, and to elucidate their physiological relations in a very 

 remarkable way, but had a special interest in their bearing on the 

 physiology and pathology of the brain in man. Their importance in 

 this respect is enhanced by the circumstance that in the course of the 

 enquiry the opportunity offered itself of comparing the brain of the 

 monkey with that of the orang (' Phil. Trans.,' 1890), a brain which 

 so closely approaches that of man in its structure that the knowledge 

 acquired by these researches may now be confidently used as a guide 

 in the diagnosis and treatment of cerebral disease. Professor Horsley 

 has himself shown and this is not the least of the merits which it is 

 desired to recognise in the bestowal of the Royal Medal in how 

 many instances the knowledge which is acquired by patient and 

 skilful work in the laboratory may be made available for the saving 

 of life, or the alleviation of human suffering. 



In connection with this leading series of researches, two others 

 relating to the physiology of the central nervous system must be 

 referred to. In one of these (' Phil. Trans.,' 1890), Professor Horsley 

 (hi co-operation with Dr. Semon) established the existence, not only 



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