108 
UNA 
[ DECEMBER 3, 1903 
Judd) (G°B°~ PRrotarGs oD: Liveing, Prof. A. E. H. Love, 
Mr. Adam Sedgwick, Dr. W. N. Shaw, Capt. T. H. 
Tizard, R.N., C.B. 
The report of the council refers, among other 
matters, to the work of the National Physical Labor- 
atory and the scientific results obtained, the Inter- 
national Association of Academies, the International 
Catalogue of Scientific Literature, International 
Aéronautics, and sleeping sickness. 
In February last, Lieut.-Colonel Bruce, F.R.S., went to 
Uganda to study sleeping sickness, with Dr. Nabarro 
as bacteriologist. Soon after their arrival, Dr. Castellani, 
who was then in Uganda, reported to Colonel Bruce that 
during the past five months he had observed trypanosomes 
in the cerebro-spinal fluid of cases of sleeping sickness, and 
a telegram was received from Colonel Bruce in April stating 
that he considered it very probable that a trypanosome was 
the cause of the disease. 
. Since then a report entitled ‘“ Progress Report on Sleep- 
ing Sickness in Uganda ”’ has been received and published 
as No. 2 Report of the Sleeping Sickness Committee. 
‘ Colonel Bruce returned to England in September, bring- 
ing with him a further report which adduces evidence that— 
(1) Sleeping Sickness is caused by the entrance into the 
blood, and thence into the cerebro-spinal fluid, of a species 
of trypanosoma. 
(2) This species is probably that discovered by Forde 
and described by Dutton from the West Coast of Africa 
and called by him Trypanosoma Gambiense. ‘ 
(3) The so-called cases of trypanosoma fever, described 
from the West Coast, may be cases of Sleeping Sickness 
in the earliest stages. 
_ (4) Monkeys are susceptible to Sleeping Sickness, which 
in them produces the same symptoms, and runs the same 
course, whether the trypanosomes injected are derived from 
cases of so-called trypanosoma fever, or from the cerebro- 
spinal fluid of cases of Sleeping Sickness. 
(5) Dogs and rats are partially susceptible, but guinea- 
pigs, donkeys, oxen, goats, and sheep, up to the present 
have shown themselves absolutely refractory. 
(6) The trypanosomes are transmitted from the sick to 
the healthy by a species of tsetse fly, Glossina palpalis, and 
by it alone. 
(7) The distribution of Sleeping Sickness and Glossina 
palpalis correspond. 
(8) Sleeping Sickness is, in short, a human tsetse fly 
disease. 
In the course of his address, the president referred 
to the portrait of Lord Rayleigh, painted by Sir George 
Reid, which was formally presented to the society at 
Monday’s meeting, and to the retirement of Sir 
Michael Foster, the senior secretary. A large part of 
the address was devoted to suggestions which have been 
made to affiliate important special or local societies 
with the Royal Society. A committee appointed to 
consider the question some time ago decided that the 
Royal Society, both as to its administration and work, 
should remain as heretofore, and not enter into any 
formal relationship with special societies. Support 
was, however, given in the address to the need of in- 
tegration in respect of publications of the Royal and 
other scientific societies. The joint publication of papers 
was brought before the council several years ago, but | 
was not received with favour. It has since been found 
to work successfully with the Royal Astronomical 
Society, and the opinion is expressed that other societies 
might arrange for the duplicate publication, in their 
own Transactions, of papers communicated to the Royal 
Society of special interest to the respective special 
societies. This plan leaves each society to its complete 
independence, and does not involve the Royal Society 
in any obligation which would in any way interfere with 
its own free administrative working. 
The work of this year’s medallists was described in 
the address as follows :— 
NO. 1779, VOL. 69] 
CopLey MeEpat. 
The Copley Medal is awarded to Prof. Edward Suess, 
For. Mem. R.S., in recognition of his eminent services to 
Geology, and especially of his original researches and con- 
clusions published in his great work, ‘‘ Das Antlitz der 
Erde.”’ 
Prof. Suess was for 40 years Professor of Geology in 
Vienna University, and under his guidance a school of 
Geology has arisen, which is not surpassed in any country 
of the world. He has written numerous papers on Strati- 
graphical and Physical Geology, and has ,published much 
valuable palzontological work. The results of many years 
of study were contained in ‘‘ Die Entstehung der Alpen,’’ 
published in 1875. In this book he traced the geological 
history of the Central European ranges, and applied the 
results of his inquiry to the problems of mountain forma- 
tion and surface contours in general. This work was 
followed, in 1885, by the first volume of ‘*‘ Das Antlitz der 
Erde,’”’ in which the same problems were attacked on a 
wider field. The second volume was published in 1888, but 
the first part of the third volume was not issued until 1901. 
In this great work the study of the changes that have 
taken place during geological times in thé oceans and 
seas of the globe is combined with inquiry into alterations 
in the form of the solid surface. Owing to the wonderful 
grasp of the subject, and the striking originality shown, 
the work has influenced geological thought to an extent 
that has seldom been equalled. 
Many geologists have distinguished themselves by master- 
ing the geological structure of different countries, small or 
large, or have devoted their energies to the solution of 
particular problems; Suess has aimed at giving an explana- 
tion of the surface features exhibited by the whole world, 
founded on an investigation of its geological history. The 
forms of continents and islands, the distribution and 
direction of mountain ranges, the profiles, contours, and 
histories of the great oceans—all are treated by him with a 
master’s hand. ‘‘ Das Antlitz der Erde’’ represents the 
culmination of the Geology of the nineteenth century; as 
has been most aptly said by Marcel Bertrand in his preface 
to the French translation, it is the last term of the revolu- 
tion commenced a century ago by Werner and Hutton. 
Royat MEDAL. 
A Royal Medal is awarded to Sir David Gill, K.C.B., 
F.R.S., for his researches in Solar and Stellar Parallax, and 
his energetic direction of the Royal Observatory at the Cape 
of Good Hope. 
Sir David Gill (H.M. Astronomer at the Cape Observatory 
since 1879) is specially distinguished for his researches on 
the distances of the heavenly bodies, although his other work 
has covered a large field. He has made four independent 
determinations of the sun’s distance by heliometer observ- 
ations of Mars (1877), Iris (1888), Victoria (1889), and 
Sappho (1889), being ably assisted in some of these in- 
vestigations by others, but undertaking the greater part of 
the work himself. The four determinations agree wonder- 
fully well in giving a solar parallax very near 8”-80, which 
has consequently been adopted for general use in national 
Ephemerides since the beginning of the present century. 
Incidentally this work gave improved values for other con- 
stants of the solar system, especially the lunar equation in 
the sun’s motion; and it suggested that the time had arrived 
for an entirely new method of observing the places of the 
planets, which Sir David Gill has since initiated. 
He has also determined the parallaxes of eleven stars of 
the first magnitude, and four stars of larger proper motion; 
| and several similar determinations carried out by others 
And he has discussed 
have been inspired by Sir David Gill. 
In such work 
the results from a cosmical point of view. 
he takes a first place among astronomers. # 
In addition to these researches of the normal type, Sir 
David Gill, by his energy and enterprise, has placed the 
Cape Observatory in the front rank; so that for the first 
time in the annals of Astronomy we have now at length an 
observatory of the highest class in the Southern Hemi- 
sphere. He has brought up to date the current reductions, 
and has produced several valuable catalogues of stars, in 
which particular attention has been paid to the elimination 
of small errors, notably the ‘‘ magnitude-equation,’’ to 
