I3S 



NATURE 



[DECEArBEK 6, 1804 



evidence of the constitution of naphthalene, and of the course of 

 substitution of naphthalene derivatives. Within recent years a 

 score ofworkers have occupied themselves with the same field of 

 research, and no greater proof of Cleve's accur.-icy and care as 

 an investigator could be furnished than the manner in which his 

 naphthalene work — confessedly one of the most intricate and 

 complicated sections of the chemistry of aromatic compounds — 

 has stood the ordeal of revision. 



Darwix Medal. 



Ri^hilflon. T. H. HuxUy, F.R.S. 



The Darwin Medal is awarded to Thomas Henry Huxley. 



Of Mr. Huxley's general labours in biological and geological 

 science I need say nothing here. They are known of all men, 

 and the Society showed its appreciation of their worth when it 

 awarded lo him the Copley Medal in 1SS8. The present medal 

 is a token of the value put by the Society on the part of his 

 scientific activity bearing more directly on the biological ideas 

 with which the name of Charles Darwin will always be 

 associated. 



All the world now knows in part, no one perhaps will ever 

 know in full, how, in the working out of his great idea, Darwin 

 was encouraged, helped, and guided by constant communion 

 with three close and faithful friends, Charles Lyell, the younger 

 Joseph Dalton Hooker, and the still younger Thomas Henry 

 Huxley. Each representing more or less different branches of 

 science, each bringing to bear on the problems in hand more or 

 less different mental characters, all three bore share, and were 

 proud to bear share, in aiding the birth of the " Origin of 

 Species." Charles Lyell has long been removed from amongst 

 our midst. Two years ago it was my pleasing duty to ulace the 

 Darwin Medal in the hands of Joseph Dalton Hoo ^r; that 

 pleasing duly is renewed today in now giving it to the last of 

 the three "who kept the bridge." 



To the world at large, perhaps, Mr. Huxley's share in mould- 

 ing the thesis of " Natural Selection" is less well known than 

 is his bold unwearied exposition and defence of it after it had 

 been made public. And, indeed, a speculative tiifler, revelling j 

 in problems of the "might have been," would find a congenial i 

 theme in the inquiry how soon what we now call " Darwinism " 

 would have met with the acceptance with which it has met, and 1 

 gained the power which it has gained, had it not been for the 

 brilliant advocacy with which in its early days it was expounded 

 to all classes of men. 



That advocacy had one striking mark ; while it made or strove | 

 to make clear how deep the new view went down and how far 

 it reached, it never shrank from striving to make equally clear 

 the limits beyond which it could not go. In these latter days 

 there is fear lest the view, once new but now familiar, may, 

 through being stretched farther than it will bear, seem to lose 

 some of its real worth. We may well be glad that the advocates 

 of the "Origin of Species by Natural Selection," who once bore 

 down its foes, is still among us ready, if needs be, 10 "save it 

 from its friends." 



The Society next proceeded to elect the officers and Council 

 for the ensuing year. We gave the list of those recommended 

 for election in our issue of November S. 



In the evening the Fellows and their friends dined together 

 at the Whitehall Rooms of the H.'.lel .Mclropole. 



After the usual toasts, the President proposed that of "The 

 Medallists," cou^lir.g with it the names of Prof. Cleve and 

 Mr. Huxley. The toast was most cordially drunk. The 

 Times reports the responses as follows : — 



Prof. Cleve, in responding, quoted ihe noble words of Davy— 

 "Science, like that nature to which it is bound, is neither 

 limited by time nor by space ; it belongs to Ihe world, and is 

 of no country and of no age." In the same sense the Royal 

 Society continued lo award its medals to men of science, with- 

 out regard to their nationality. It was a g'eat and elevating 

 thought that there existed a spot in the world where members 

 of all nations met each other as friends, assisting each other in 

 their work for the advancement of science, aiid theicforc for ihe 

 good of humanity and the prosperity of mankind. It was the 

 first lime that the Davy medal had found its way to Sweden, 

 but it was not the first time that other medals of Ihe Koyal 

 Society had been voled to Professor.^ of the Vnivcrsity lo which 

 he was attached. The Kumfoid medal had been given not less 

 than three limes lo his colleagues, and when he offered to the 



NO. t3IO, VOL 51] 



Royal Society his respectful thanks he was happy to include also 

 those of the University of Ipsala. 



Mr. Huxley said— I am extremely grateful for the respite which 

 has been afforded me by the distinguished f ireigner to whom 

 you have just been listening with so much pleasure, because I 

 am loaded with five distinct and separate parcels of gratitude. 

 That is a substance of which I believe the specific gravity has 

 never yet been accurately determined. I am told that in some 

 parts of the world, and especially in the political world, it is 

 lighter than hydrogen ; but in the scientific world, and when 

 the object of it is the approbation of a body like ihe Royal 

 Society, I am disposed to think that we may rank it rather with 

 platinum, so largely does it affect the destinies of those who are 

 fortunate enough to receive it. In respect of four of these 

 paicels I am simply a representative, and perhaps I ought to 

 content myself with acting purely as a representative of those 

 who I wish had been called upon to express their gratitude for 

 themselves. But pet haps I may venture to add that in some 

 cases I have a little personal word to say for myself, as, for 

 example, in that of the Copley medal, which you have adjudged 

 one of my oldest friends and many years a colleague, so that I 

 have a strong and warm interest in the fact that his great 

 services to the science of chemistry have been recognised. .'Vnd, 

 again, I think that there is another friend in whom I may 

 claim a personal interest— I mean my friend Prof. De war— for 

 the remarkable character of his discoveries allows a person who 

 indulges so little in flights of imagination as myself to think of the 

 time when, instead of the excellent liquid with which we have 

 been supplied here, we may have at these dinners of the Royal 

 Society liquid oxygen Hen Jrafpc, and then, gentlemen, with 

 that stimulus there is no saying to what length the eloquence 

 of persons who address you may go. .\nd then, again, in one 

 of the youngest of those whom you have honoured with your 

 approbation to day, and whose work lies within the province 

 in which I am still capable if not of knowledge at le.ist of appre- 

 ciation—I mean Prof. Victor Horsley— I may say that it is 

 pleasant to nie to see him here like a Ulysses who has escaped 

 from the toils of the Circes of anti vivisection. Hut the most 

 difficult task that remains is that which concerns myself. It is 

 forty-three years ago this day since the Koyal Society did me 

 the honour to award me a Royal medal, and thereby determined 

 my career. But, having long retired into the position of a 

 veteran, I confess I was extremely astonished — 1 honestly also 

 say that I was extremely pleased— to receive the announcement 

 that you had been good enough to award to me the Darwin 

 medal. But you know the Royal Society, like all things in this- 

 world, is subject to criticism. I confess that with the ingrained 

 instincts of an old official that which arose in my mind alter the 

 reception of the information that I had been thus disiinguished 

 was to start an inquiry which I suppose suggests itself to every 

 old official— How can my government be justified ? In reflect- 

 ing upon what had been my own share in what are now very 

 largely ancient transactions it was perfectly obvious to- 

 me that I had no such claims as those of Mr. Wallace. 

 It was also perfectly clear lo me that I had no such claims as 

 those of my life-long friend Sir Joseph Hooker, who for twenty- 

 five years placed all his great sources of knowledge, his sagacity, 

 his industry, at the disposition of his friend Darwin. And 

 really, I began to despair of what possible answer could be 

 given to the critics whom the Koyal Society, meeting as it does 

 on November 30, has lately been very apt to hear about oiv 

 December i. Naturally there occurred lo my mind that famous 

 and comfortable line, which I suppose has helped so many 

 people under like circumstances, " They also serve who only 

 stand and wail." I am bound to confess that the standing and 

 waiting lo which I refer, has been, so far as I am concerned, of 

 asome»hat peculiar character. I can only explain it, if you 

 will permit me lo narrate a story which came to me in my old 

 naulic.-il days, and which, I believe, has just as much foundation 

 .IS a good deal of other information which I derived at the same 

 period from ihe same source. There was a merchant ship itt 

 which a member of the Society of Friends had taken passage. 

 That ship was attacked by a pirate, and the captain thereupon 

 put into ihe hands of the member of the Society of Friends a 

 pike, and desired him lo lake part in the subsequent action, 

 to which, as you may imagine, the reply was that he would do 

 nothing of Ihe kind ; but he said that he had no objection lo stand 

 and wail at the gangway. He did stand and wait with the pike 

 in his hand, and when the pirates mounted and showed 

 ibemselvcs coming on board, he thrust his pike (with the 



