THE AWAED OF MEDALS 417 



Lindley and Bentham in this country deserve a medal, 

 infinitely before myself in Botany — men who are famous 

 abroad but thought comparatively Httle of in this country 

 from various motives. I should have been better pleased 

 still if you or some other naturalist had proposed Forbes, 

 for Grove ^ has no more real appreciation of Forbes's or of my 

 claims than Graham ^ or De la Kue ^ have, and acted simply 

 out of a vague sense of Geology being something more physical 

 than Botany. In an abstract point of view I think Forbes's 

 claims far superior to mine : but the K.S. should not look 

 solely to abstract claims, but seek to distribute their rewards 

 judiciously over all classes of science and the different 

 branches of the classes, e.g. taking a hypothetical case — a 

 man who (like you) works out a point of abstract science 

 during the difficulties and discouragements of a voyage, has 

 in my opinion an equal claim at least with a man who works 

 the same in his easy chair ; even though the latter works 

 it better. ■ 



Bell told me of all the proceedings after I left Council 

 on Thursday and spoke with undisguised satisfaction and 

 pleasure of the parts you had taken. 



Ever, dear Huxley, yours, 



J. D. Hooker. 



Anything in the nature of sectionalism in making these 

 awards was very repugnant to him ; and he was doubtless 



^ Sir William Robert Grove (1811-96), a man of science and judge, was 

 educated at Brazenose College, Oxford, subsequently receiving the D.C.L. in 

 1875, and the Cambridge LL.D. in 1879. Ill-health, which checked his early 

 career at the bar, gave him time to follow his scientific bent. He became a 

 member (1835) and subsequently Vice-President of the Royal Institution, and 

 Professor of Experimental Philosophy in the London Institution. His invention 

 of the gas voltaic battery in 1839 brought him election to the Royal Society the 

 next year and a Royal Medal in 1847. His most important work on the Correla- 

 tion of Physical Forces (1846) anticipated Helmholtz's essay on the same 

 subject. Later, his scientific eminence brought him much legal work in patent 

 cases. He was raised to the bench in 1871, retiring in 1887. 



2 Thomas Graham (1805-69), chemist; M.A. Glasgow 1824; Professor of 

 Chemistry, Glasgow, 1830, at Univ. Coll., London, 1837-58 ; Master of the Mint, 

 Keith prizeman and Gold Medallist of the Royal Society, first president of the 

 Chemical and Cavendish Societies; F.R.S. 1836, and twice vice-president; 

 Bakerian Lecturer 1850 and 1854; D.C.L. (Oxford 1853. 



3 Warren De la Rue (1815-89) was one of those successful men of business 

 with whom science came first. He was the author of various successful in- 

 ventions, both for commercial purposes and for scientific research, and was 

 especially distinguished for his work in celestial photography. 



