Jan. 9. 1890] 



NATURE 



235 



have been collected together, and a selection of the most valu- 

 able have been preserved in a properly protected case. Of the 

 remainder, about 150 volumes (in addition to those reported last 

 year) have been presented to various public libraries, and a slip 

 catalogue of the volumes which are retained, containing about 

 1700 entries, has been prepared. 



The manuscripts (other than the originals of ordinary papers 

 read at the meetings) which have accrued to the Society since 

 the publication of Halliwell's Catalogue have been collected from 

 various parts of the building into the Archives Room, with the 

 object of preparing a complete catalogue of the manuscripts at 

 l^resent in the possession of the Society. 



Since the last anniversary, twenty-four memoirs have been 

 published in the Philosophical Transactions, containing a total 

 of 753 pages and 33 plates. Of the Proceedings, twelve num- 

 bers have been issued, containing 1062 pages and 6 plates. Dr. 

 R. von Lendenfeld's "Monograph of the Horny Sponges," 

 mentioned in my last anniversary address, has also been issued 

 during the year in a quarto volume of 940 pages of text and 51 

 plates. 



The Fellows are aware that for a great many years the Royal 

 Society has devoted a part of its funds to the collection, pre- 

 paration for the press, and correction of the proofs of a Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Papers. We have endeavoured to make the 

 work as complete as possible, and to include scientific serials in 

 all languages. The first part, covering the period 1800-63, is 

 printed in six thick quarto volumes, of which the last appeared 

 in 1872. The decade 1864-73 occupies two more volumes, of 

 which the second was published in 1879. This work, in the 

 preparation of which the Royal Society has spent a large sum, 

 is for the benefit of the whole civilized world, and the sale of it 

 could not be expected nearly to cover the cost of printing, 

 paper, and binding. On a representation to this effect being 

 made to Government, when the first part was ready for the 

 press, the Lords of the Treasury consented that it should be 

 printed at the public expense, the proceeds of the sale of the 

 work,' after reserving a certain number of copies for presenta- 

 tion, being repaid to the Treasury. In consideration of the 

 large outlay involved in the preparation, those Fellows of the 

 Society who wished to purchase the work could do so at about 

 two-thirds of the cost to the general public. A similar application 

 to the Treasury with reference to the decade 1864-73 met with 

 a similar response, and we proceeded, as I mentioned at the 

 anniversary last year, with the preparation of the manuscript for 

 the next decade, 1874-83, which was then nearly ready. On 

 making application towards the end of last year to the Treasury 

 for the printing of this decade, our request was not acceded to. 

 While declining, however, to continue any further the printing 

 of this great work, the sum of ;^looo was put in the Estimates, 

 and has since been voted by Parliament, to assist us in the pub- 

 lication, and the copies of the work still remaining unsold have 

 been handed over to us. This has enabled us to conclude nego- 

 tiations with Messrs. Clay and the Syndics of the Cambridge 

 University Press for the printing of the decade last mentioned, 

 and at the same time to make some provision towards the future 

 continuation of the work, without, as it may be hoped, en- 

 croaching to a greater extent than hitherto on our own 

 resources. 



The utility of the work would obviously be much increased 

 if it could be furnished with some sort of key enabling persons 

 to find what had been written on particular subjects. I am not 

 without hopes that this very desirable object may yet be accom- 

 plished, notwithstanding the magnitude of any such undertaking. 



Within the last year the Council of the Royal Society has 

 accepted a duty in connection with scientific agriculture, of 

 which it will be interesting to the Fellows to be informed. It 

 is well known that for the last fifty years, or thereabouts. Sir 

 John Lawes has carried out on his estate at Rothamsted an 

 elaborate and most persevering series of experiments on the 

 conditions which influence the growth and yield of crops of 

 various kinds, the effect of manures of diff'erent kinds, the result 

 of taking the same crop, year after year, from off" the same land 

 without supplying to it any manure, &c. Long as these experi- 

 ments have already been continued, there are questions, par- 

 ticularly as re^^ards the capabilities of the sub-soil, which require 

 for their satisfactory answers that similar experiments should be 

 continued on the same land for a still longer period. In respect 

 of such questions, the investigator of the science of agriculture is 

 in a position resembling that in which the astronomer is often 



placed, in having to make observations, the full interest of which 

 it must be left to posterity to enjoy. 



To prevent the interruption of these experiments, which it 

 would take a life-time to repeat on fresh ground, and at the 

 same time to provide for the carrying out of researches generally 

 bearing on the science of agriculture. Sir John Lawes has created 

 a trust, securing to the trustees a capital sum of ;^ 100, 000, and 

 leasing to them for ninety-nine years, at a peppercorn rent, 

 certain lands in his demesne on which the experiments have 

 hitherto been carried on, together with his laboratory. The 

 trust is intended to be for original research, not for the instruc- 

 tion of students. The general direction of the experiments and 

 researches to be carried on is vested in a committee of manage- 

 ment consisting of nine persons, of whom four are to be appointed 

 by the President and Council of the Royal Society. 



The trustees named in the deed were Sir John Lubbock, 

 Dr. Wells, and our Treasurer, Dr. Evans. One of these is 

 now no more. Lord Walsingham has been appointed a trustee 

 in place of the late Dr. Wells. 



The Copley Medal for the year has been awarded to Dr. 

 Salmon for his various papers on subjects of pure mathematics, 

 and for the valuable mathematical treatises of which he is the 

 author. Dr. Salmon's published papers are all valuable. Among 

 others may be mentioned his researches on the classification of 

 curves of double curvature, and on the condition for equal roots 

 of an equation ; the very important theorem of the constant 

 anharmonic ratio of the four tangents of a cubic curve ; his 

 researches on the theory of reciprocal surfaces ; his paper on 

 quaternary cubics. But any notice of his contributions to the 

 advancement of pure mathematics would be incomplete which 

 did not specially mention his invaluable text-books on conic 

 sections, higher plane curves, solid geometry, and the modern 

 algebra — works which not only give a comprehensive view of 

 the subjects to which they relate, but contain a great deal of 

 original matter. 



Of the Royal Medals, it is the usual though not invariable 

 practice to award one for mathematics or physics, including 

 chemistry, and one for some one or more of the biological 

 sciences. No distinction is, however, made between the two 

 medals in point of order of precedence, and I will, therefore, 

 take the names of the medallists in alphabetical order. 



The Council have awarded one of the Royal Medals this year 

 to Dr. Walter Holbrook Gaskell for his researches in cardiac 

 physiology, and his important discoveries in the anatomy and 

 physiology of the sympathetic nervous system. 



In his memoir, "On the Rhythm of the Heart of the Frog" 

 (Croonian Lecture, Phil. Trans., 1882), and in a subsequent 

 memoir, "On the Innervation of the Heart of the Tortoise" 

 {Journ. of Physiol., vol, iv.). Dr. Gaskell very largely advanced 

 our knowledge of the physiology of the heart-beat, more espe- 

 cially as relates to the sequence of the beats of the several parts, 

 the nature of the inhibitory action of the vagus nerve, and the 

 relations of tonicity and conducting power to rhythmical con- 

 traction. These memoirs, however, lacked completeness on 

 account of their not taking into full consideration the action of 

 the cardiac augmentor or accelerator fibres, the existence of 

 which had been previously indicated in the case of mammals,, 

 and suspected in the case of the frog and allied animals. 



By a striking experiment {Jo7irn. of Physiol., vol. v.) Dr. 

 Gaskell subsequently gave the first clear demonstration of the 

 presence in the frog of cardiac augmentor fibres ; also he gave a 

 clear account of the nature of the action of their fibres, and the 

 relations of that action to the action of the vagus fibres. Revising 

 his previous work by the help of the light thus gained, Dr. 

 Gaskell was enabled to give the first really consistent and satis- 

 factory account of the nature of the heart-beat, of the modifica- 

 tions of beat due to extrinsic nerves, and of the parts played by 

 muscular and nervous elements respectively. 



Important as was this work on the heart. Dr. Gaskell's 

 subsequent work "On the Structure, Functions, and Distribu- 

 tion of the Nerves which govern the Vascular and Visceral 

 Systems" (Jouni. of Physiol.," vol. vii.) has a far higher 

 importance and significance. In spite of the knowledge which 

 during the past thirty or forty years has been gained concerning 

 vaso-motor nerves and the nerves governing the movements of 

 the viscera, physiologists had up to the time of the appearance 

 of Dr. Gaskell's memoir failed to obtain a clear conception of 

 the nature and relations of the so-called sympathetic nervous 

 system. By his researches, in which the several methods of 



