December 4, 1902] 



NA TURE 



109 



The main result of those researches, namely, the definite proof 

 that the suppuration of wounds, no less than putrefaction, was 

 the work of living organisms, was not reached as a happy acci- 

 dent ; it was the natural outcome of long-continued scientific 

 observation and reasoning, the fruit of the labours of a well- 

 trained scientific mind. Beginning with purely histological and 

 physiological investigations having only an indirect relation to 

 medicine and perhaps still less to surgery, he was gradually led, 

 without changing his method or his mode of thought, to that 

 which has so profoundly influenced both. His work has been a 

 shining example of that which the Royal Society was founded 

 to advance, the shaping of a new philosophy which is for the 

 good of man. 



Rumford Medal. 



The Hon. Charles Algernon Parsons, F.R.S. 



The Rumford Medal is given to the Hon. Charles Algernon 

 Parsons for his success in the application of the steam turbine 

 to industrial purposes, and for its recent extension to 

 navigation. 



The work of Mr. Parsons is of a kind which specially comes 

 under the terms and conditions of the Rumford Medal, as con- 

 sisting " of new inventions and contrivances by which the 

 generation and preservation and management of heat and of 

 light may be facilitated," and as "shall tend most to the good 

 of mankind." 



By his invention and perfection of the steam turbine, he has 

 not only provided a prime mover of exceptional efficiency 

 working at a high speed without vibration, but has taken a step 

 forward which makes an epoch in the history of the application 

 of steam to industry, and which is, probably, the greatest since 

 the time of Watt. The success of the turbine is due to the 

 experimental skill and inventive ability which have enabled him 

 to overcome all difficulties, and to contrive a multitude of 

 details without which the general idea of compound working 

 could not have been translated into practice. 



The use of the steam turbine for dynamo driving has been in 

 operation for some time and is rapidly becoming common. 

 Machines of 2000 horse-power and over are now being built. 

 In accordance, however, with the conditions of the Rumford 

 Trust, that the medal shall be awarded for work done within 

 the previous two years, his claims to favourable consideration 

 are based specially on the recent application of the steam 

 turbine to marine navigation. The use of the steam turbine, 

 as is well known, enabled the Viper and the Cobra to attain 

 speeds hitherto unattainable. It has now been introduced 

 within the last few years in vessels for mercantile purposes on 

 the Clyde, and is being applied to ocean-going vessels. 



Royal Medal. 

 Prof. Horace Lamb, F.R.S. 



A Royal Medal is awarded to Prof. Horace Lamb for his 

 investigations in mathematical physics. 



Prof. Lamb has been conspicuous during the last twenty years 

 by the extent and value of his contributions to mathematical 

 physics. His writings have been distinguished by clearness, 

 precision and perfection of form. His early work related to 

 hydrodynamics, the " Treatise on the Motion of Fluids," pub- 

 lished in 1S79, being one of the first adequate accounts of the 

 modern progress of that subject. 



From 1 88 1 to 1884, he published a series of memoirs dealing 

 with the application of harmonic analysis to vibrational 

 problems connected with spheres and other forms of bodies. 



In these papers, subjects such as the subsidence of oscil- 

 lations in viscous matter, the vibrations of spherical elastic 

 solids, free electric vibrations and forced alternating currents 

 were treated with full application to actual phenomena. In 

 the memoirs on electrical motions and oscillations, he de- 

 veloped with remarkable completeness the application of 

 Maxwell's electric theory in this department — including such 

 topics as the surface-concentration of alternating currents — 

 some years before the progress of the applications of electricity 

 bad led to independent experimental discovery of the im- 

 portance of these phenomena. 



In 1889-90, he published (Proc. Math. Soc. and Phil. Mag.) 

 a number of valuable papers on the elastic deformation of plates 

 and shells, which involved many new results, and also did much 

 towards elucidating difficulties that had been encountered in this 

 intricate subject. 



Recent work has also included a discussion "On Reciprocal 

 Theorems in Dynamics" (Proc. Math. Soc, 1888), a solution of 

 the problem of the diffraction of a train of electric waves by a 

 wire grating {Proc. Math. Soc, 1S98), and memoirs on the 

 dynamical theory of the refraction and selective absorption of 

 light by gaseous media (Trans. Camb. Phil. Soc, 1899, 

 Proc. Math. Soc, 1900 1 . In the latter subject, he traversed 

 ground in which he afterwards found that he had been, to a 

 considerable extent, anticipated (in Danish) by L. Lorenz. 



His treatise on " Hydrodynamics," 1S95, 604 pp. demy 

 octavo, is universally recognised as the standard presentation 

 of that subject. It maintains the best traditions of the British 

 school of mathematical physics. 



Royal Medal. 



Prof. Edward Albert Schafer, F. R.S. 



The other Royal Medal is conferred upon Prof. Edward 

 Albert Schafer for his researches into the functions and minute 

 structure of the central nervous system, especially with regard to 

 the motor and sensory functions of the cortex of the brain. 



Prof. Schafer has contributed to animal physiology much work 

 in various lines of research, and his discoveries regarding the 

 nervous system have been especially numerous, from the time 

 of his demonstration of nerves in the disc of medusa to his late 

 work on the relation of the cerebral cortex of the ape to the 

 sensory functions of the skin. Altogether, his neurological re- 

 searches rank among the most important of contemporary 

 British contributions to that branch of physiology. It is, how- 

 ever, especially for his work upon the functions of one of the 

 ductless glands — the supra-renal — that he has a claim to recog- 

 nition as a Royal Medallist. In 1894 he, in conjunction with 

 Dr. G. Oliver, succeeded in demonstrating the existence in the 

 cortex of the supra-renal gland of a substance, called now 

 adrenalin, which is the most powerful known stimulant to the 

 cells of visceral and vascular muscles. The discovery has since 

 been confirmed by numerous workers, British and foreign ; the 

 original researches were, however, so accurate and exhaustive 

 as to leave little further to be added by any means available at 

 present. The work incidentally revealed absence of this active 

 principle in the diseased supra-renal glands in Morbus Addi- 

 sonii, a malady considered invariably fatal. The investigation 

 laid the first real basis for knowledge of the function? of the 

 supra-renal gland. Recently Prof. Schafer has, working on 

 lines similar to his adrenalin research, extracted from another 

 ductless gland, the pituitary, a substance exhibiting marked 

 properties as a diuretic. 



Davy Medal. 



Prof. Svante August Arrhenius. 



The Davy Medal is awarded to Prof. Svante August Arrhenius 

 for his application of the theory of dissociation to the explan- 

 ation of chemical change. 



It is not easy to over-estimate the importance of the service 

 rendered to chemistry by Prof. Svante Arrhenius through the 

 publication of his memoir, presented to the Swedish Academy of 

 Sciences on June 6, i883,,entitied " Recherches sur la Conduc- 

 tibilite Galvanique des Electrolytes." As far back as 18S6, 

 Sir Oliver Lodge, in referring to the second part of Prof. 

 Arrhenius's memoir, in the Report to the British Association of 

 the Committee on Electrolysis, spoke of it as a distinct step 

 towards a mathematical theory of chemistry, and went so far as 

 to say that " the title affixed to it is ' The Chemical Theory of 

 Electrolytes,' but it is a bigger thing than this — it really is an 

 attempt at an electrolytic theory of chemistry." This judgment 

 has since been amply confirmed. Whether the theory be true 

 or not in substance, it has proved to be a working hypothesis of 

 the utmost value, having provided chemists for the first time 

 with the means of fully discussing the phenomena of chemical 

 interchange in dilute solutions of electrolytes mathematically. 



Since 1883, Arrhenius has been constantly occupied in ex- 

 tending the application of the views put forward in his first 

 paper. 



The conception of the almost complete dissociation into their 

 ions of strong acids and bases and of many salts in dilute solu- 

 tion was fully developed by him in 18S7, almost simultaneously 

 with van 't Hoff's extension of the gaseous laws to solutions. 



NO. I727, VOL. 67] 



