176 RECORD OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY 



^258 9*. 2d. Metropolitan 3 per cent. Stock, producing rather less than 8 

 per annum. The medal, which is of gold, and of the value of about twenty 

 guineas, is awarded every five years for distinguished service in Hygienic 

 Science or Practice, in the direction either of original research or of pro- 

 fessional, administrative, or constructive work. The balance in hand accom- 

 panies the medal, which has no limit as to nationality. The first medal was 

 given to Lady Buchanan by the subscribers to the fund (see p. 216). 



No. 4. THE CROONIAN LECTURE FUND. 



This is one of the earliest institutions connected with the Society, and, 

 in name at least, carries us back to the days of its foundation. At the 

 meeting held on November 28, 1660, (ante, p. 8), when the design for 

 founding the Society was discussed, Mr. Croone, though absent, was nominated 

 as the Register, or as we should now call him Registrar, of the small band 

 of learned men who met weekly at Gresham College. Dr. Croone, as he 

 subsequently became, was from the beginning an active Fellow of the Society, 

 and on his death, in 1684, left a scheme for two lectureships which he 

 intended to found, one of which was for the Royal Society. In his will, 

 however, he made no provision for carrying out this purpose, but his widow, 

 who subsequently became Lady Sadleir, remedied the omission, and in her 

 will, dated September 25, 1701, bequeathed to the Society one-fifth of the 

 clear rent of the King's Head Tavern, in or near Old Fish Street, London, at 

 the corner of Lambeth Hill, 'for the support of a lecture and illustrative 

 experiment for the advancement of natural knowledge on local motion, or 

 (conditionally) on such other subjects as, in the opinion of the President for 

 the time being, should be most useful in promoting the objects for which the 

 Royal Society was instituted,' the remainder being paid to the Royal College 

 of Physicians, also for the support of a lecture to be delivered before them ; 

 a decree in Chancery, in 1728, empowered the Society to devote the whole 

 nett annual profits of the legacy to the payment for a single lecture and its 

 attendant expenses. The proper subject for the lecture is the nature or laws 

 of muscular motion, to be accompanied by some anatomical demonstration. 

 The first Croonian Lecture was delivered in 1738 by Dr. Stuart, the subject 

 l>eing 'The Motion of the Heart 1 . From 1786 to 1885 the property was let 

 for 15 per annum, so that the share of the Society was only about 3, but 

 since 1885 the rent of the estate has been materially increased, and the 

 Society now receives a sum of about < J 56 yearly as its share, which is paid 

 over by the Royal College of Physicians, which deals with the whole property. 

 The whole of the available balance is in each year paid to the lecturer or for 

 expenses. 



A list of the Croonian Lectures from the beginning in 1738, together with 

 the subjects of their lectures, will be found in Chapter VII. 



