46. 



ADDRESS ON PRESENTING THE GOLD MEDAL OF THE ROYAL ASTRO- 

 NOMICAL SOCIETY TO M. LE VERRIER. 



[From the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Vol. xxxvi. (1876).] 



IT has been already announced to you that the Council have awarded 

 the Society's medal to M. Le Verrier for his theories of the four great 

 planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and for his tables of Jupiter 

 and Saturn founded thereupon. It now becomes my pleasing duty to explain 

 to you the grounds of this award. 



I need not, on the present occasion, enter into any detail respecting the 

 previous achievements of our distinguished Associate, and the numerous and 

 valuable researches with which he has enriched our science. These will be 

 fresh in your recollection, and they have already been eloquently described 

 to you from this chair. 



It is not many years since our medal was awarded to M. Le Verrier for 

 his theories and tables of the four planets nearest the Sun, viz. Mercury, 

 Venus, the Earth, and Mars. Long before this he had been occupied with 

 the larger planets, but before proceeding further with their theories he found 

 it necessary to establish on solid foundations the theory of the motion of 

 the Earth, on which all the rest depend, and this again naturally led him 

 to investigate the theories of the three nearer planets which, with the Earth, 

 constitute the inferior portion of the planetary system. 



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