42. 



ADDRESS ON PRESENTING THE GOLD MEDAL OF THE ROYAL ASTRO- 

 NOMICAL SOCIETY TO M. PETERS. 



[From the Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society. Vol. xxi. (1852).] 



IT has already been announced to you that the medal of the Society 

 has been awarded to M. Peters, for his two papers, entitled, "Numerus 

 Constans Nutationis ex Ascensionibus Rectis Stellge Polaris in Specula 

 Dorpatensi Annis 1822 ad 1838 observatis deductus," and "Recherches 

 sur la Parallaxe des Etoiles Fixes," which are published respectively in the 

 third and fifth volumes of the sixth series of the Mathematical and 

 Physical Transactions of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg; 

 and it is now my duty to explain to you the grounds of this award, 

 which (unless their effect be marred by my very imperfect statement of 

 them) will, I doubt not, secure your approval. 



These papers form part of a series emanating from the astronomers 

 of the Pulkowa Observatory, and having for their object the advancement 

 of sidereal astronomy ; first, by a new and more accurate determination of 

 the elements which affect the apparent places of all the stars, such as 

 precession, nutation, and aberration; and, secondly, by an examination of 

 the peculiarities affecting individual stars, such as annual parallax and 

 proper motion, by which alone we can gain a knowledge of the scale on 

 which the visible universe is constructed, and of the arrangement in space 

 and of the relative motions of the bodies of which it is composed. 



