THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY 375 



speculations of our own times, as all compounds of one 

 universal matter, to the various modes of movement 

 and grouping of which the constitution of the entire 

 visible part of the universe was to be ascribed. He 

 showed more clearly than his predecessors that air was 

 necessary to combustion and respiration. He prepared 

 phosphorus and hydrogen, although he failed to recog- 

 nise the independent nature of the last. He first used 

 vegetable colour tests for alkalinity and acidity, and 

 introduced the use of chemical reagents into investiga- 

 tion. He believed heat to be a brisk molecular motion 

 and not a material substance, thus forestalling in part 

 ideas which only assumed full sway in this present 

 century. He first suggested the freezing and boiling 

 points of water as fixed points on the thermometer. 



" Boyle also studied light (which he endeavoured to 

 weigh), as well as sound (the propagation of which by 

 the atmosphere he is said to have first demonstrated) ; 

 also electricity, magnetism, and hydrostatics. He in- 

 vented what is practically the modern air-pump, and 

 by its aid made many new experiments. His discovery 

 of the elastic law of gases in 1 662, fourteen years before 

 Mariotte confirmed it, is known to all, and doubtless 

 inspired Hook to make his celebrated investigation into 

 the elastic law of metals." 



" The fitness of attaching Boyle's name to our 

 medal resides not alone in his universality, but in the 

 fact that he it was who chiefly introduced the scientific 

 society into our civilisation. Lastly he was an Irishman. 

 The Oxford Junior Scientific Club has celebrated him by 

 founding Boyle Lectures. To these the greatest living 

 thinkers have already contributed. If the Royal 

 Society has omitted to commemorate him with a 

 medal, it is fitting that we should make good the omis- 

 sion, and claim what is our own. 



