President's Address. o09 



us astonishing evidence that metals are capable of diffusing into each 

 other, not only when one of them is in the state of fusion, but 

 when both are solid. We learned that if clean surfaces of lead and 

 gold are held together in vacuo at a temperature of only 40 for 

 four days, they will unite firmly and can only be separated by a force 

 equal to one-third of the breaking strain of lead itself. And gold 

 placed at the bottom of a cylinder of lead 70 mm. long thus united 

 with it, will have diffused to the top in notable quantities at the end 

 of three days. Such facts tend to modify our views concerning 

 the mutual relations of the liquid and solid states of matter. 



Such are a few samples of the many highly interesting communica- 

 tions we have had in physics and chemistry. On the biological side 

 also, there has been no lack of important work. Of this I may refer 

 to one or two instances. 



Professor Schafer has given us an account of the well devised 

 experiments by which he has conclusively established that the spleen 

 is on the one hand capable, like the heart, of independent rhythmical 

 contractions, and, on the other hand, has those contractions controlled 

 by the central nervous system acting through an extraordinary 

 number of efferent channels. 



Professor Farmer and Mr. Lloyd- Williams made a very beautiful 

 contribution to biology in the account they gave of their elaborate 

 investigations on the fertilisation and segmentation of the spore in 

 Fucus. Especial interest attached to this communication, from the 

 fact that it described in a vegetable form exactly what had been 

 established by Oscar Hertwig in Echinodermata, viz., that out of the 

 multitude of fertilising elements that surround the female cell, one 

 only enters it and becomes blended with its nucleus. 



Lastly, I may mention the very remarkable investigation into the 

 development of the Common Eel, which was described to us a 

 fortnight ago by Professor Grassi, to which I shall have occasion 

 to refer in some detail when speaking of his claims to one of the 

 Society's medals. 



These, as I have before said, are but samples of what we have had 

 before us ; but I think they are in themselves sufficient to justify the 

 statement that, in point of scientific interest, the past year has been 

 in no degree inferior to its predecessors. 



COPLEY MEDAL. 

 Professor Gad Gegenbaur, For. Mem. U.S. 



The Copley Medal for 1896 is given to Carl Gegenbaur, Professor 

 of Anatomy in Heidelberg, in recognition of his pre-eminence in the 

 science of Comparative Anatomy or Animal Morphology. Professor 



