DECEMBER 4, 1913] 
such expenditure. As only a small sum has been 
contributed by the Treasury, the work of the 
committee has been seriously delayed. The society 
has acquired the character of a kind of central 
council of science, and may legitimately claim 
that few scientific problems could arise affecting 
modern life for the solution of which the most 
extensive experience and the most authoritative 
opinion would not probably be found within its 
own representative ranks. The public recognition 
of this serviceableness has greatly increased the 
range of the society’s activities, but there has not 
been a corresponding increase of financial 
support. Continuing, the president said :— 
There is unfortunately a prevailing but mistaken 
impression that a society which can thus freely place 
its knowledge and experience at the disposal of the 
State must be a wealthy body. It is true that we 
administer every year a considerable sum of money; 
but almost the whole of this:sum is earmarked for 
certain definite objects, and cannot be diverted to 
anything else. Even the annual Parliamentary grant 
of 4oool. for scientific investigation, which is placed 
in the hands of the society, is not a contribution to 
the society’s own operations. The whole of it, except 
the trifling sum required for clerical assistance and 
necessary printing, is allocated to applicants from all 
parts of the country for their individual researches. 
. . . There is a second annual Parliamentary grant 
of toool. made to the Royal Society to assist in defray- 
ing the expenses of publication. But it is understood 
that a portion of this sum is to be set aside for the 
purpose of aiding the adequate publication of scientific 
matter through other channels and in other ways. 
Thus the whole of the subvention which the society 
receives annually from the State for its own require- 
ments amounts to only a few hundred pounds towards 
the cost of its publications, together with the use of 
its rooms in Burlington House, where it sits rent free, 
but subject to expenditure for internal upkeep and 
REPAITS.. ws 
When we consider the amount and value of the 
gratuitous service given at the request of the various 
public departments, it is abundantly obvious that the 
Government of this country is under special obliga- 
tions to the Royal Society, which, were they expressed 
in the plain language of professional practice, would 
be indicated by a considerable sum of’ money... . 
We claim that our disinterested action deserves to be 
recognised by at least a generous and sympathetic 
attitude on the part of the Government towards our 
aims and objects, and a disposition to help us when 
our means prove inadequate to carry out the work 
which we have undertaken for the furtherance of the 
progress of science. 
Sir Archibald Geikie announced that since his 
address was written Sir James Caird, Bart., of 
Dundee, so well known for his munificent bene- 
factions to science, had sent him a cheque for 
5000]. to be expended in yearly disbursements 
of about s5o0o0l. for the furtherance of physical 
research. Subjoined are summaries of the descrip- 
tion of the work of the medallists given in the 
address. h 
The. Copley medal is this year assigned to Sir 
Edwin Ray Lankester, in recognition of the value of 
his original researches in zoology and of the import- 
ance of his personal influence in stimulating the in- 
vestigations of his pupils and others, which have 
materially extended the boundaries of our knowledge 
NO. 2301, VOL. 92] € 
NATURE 
405 
of the animal kingdom. His own work, which has 
been in large measure morphological, has thrown 
light on the mutual relations of living animals and 
also on the. structure and affinities of long extinct 
organisms. His researches in the comparative em- 
bryology of the higher Mollusca and of the anatomy 
of the Nautilus gave him an assured place among 
the zoologists of his day. His early papers on the 
Ostracoderm fishes of the Old Red Sandstone afforded 
a memorable example of palzontological acumen. In 
addition to his original investigations, he has laid 
zoology under a debt of gratitude to him for his 
luminous general articles in some of the larger de- 
partments of the science. 
The council’s awards of the two Royal medals 
annually presented by the King have received his 
Majesty’s approval. The medal on the physical side 
has been adjudged to Prof. Harold Baily Dixon, to 
mark the society’s appreciation of the importance of 
his long-continued investigations of the phenomena 
of gaseous explosion. His important observations on 
the. theory of combustion have shown that water- 
vapour acts as a carrier of oxygen during the oxida- 
tion of carbon, and undergoes a cycle of changes 
wherein it gives up its oxygen to carbon monoxide. 
From the further study of the explosion of this 
monoxide and oxygen, in the presence of other gases, 
he concluded that any substance capable of producing 
steam will determine the explosion. By the introduc- 
tion of photography into his studies of the explosive 
wave he has been able to throw light on the mode 
of burning of carbon and its compounds. 
The Royal medal on the biological side is bestowed 
on Prof. Ernest Henry Starling, as a mark of the 
society’s high appreciation of the wide range of his 
contributions to the advancement of physiology. By 
his inquiry into the relation of lymph production, and 
the absorption of fluids from the peritoneal cavity and 
the cavity of the eye-ball, he showed the dependence 
of these processes upon the osmotic pressure Of the 
blood and tissue fluids and the hydrostatic pressure 
in the blood-vessels. In his excellent studies of the 
mammalian heart he has greatly improved the tech- 
nique. By much reducing the volume of blood needed 
to maintain a circulation through heart and lung, he 
has -increased the sensibility: of the preparation to 
variations of state, and by introducing into the circuit 
of the blood a readily adjusted resistance to the flow 
he can ascertain the effects of the obstacle upon the 
heart’s action. He has discovered that the normal 
heart of the dog will consume 4 mgrm. of sugar per 
gram muscle per hour, but that if the animal is 
diabetic, the heart is incapable of consuming sugar— 
an observation of singular value in the light it throws 
upon the cause of diabetes. 
The Davy medal has been awarded to Prof. Raphael 
Meldola, in acknowledgment of the distinction of his 
contributions to . synthetical organic chemistry, 
especially in the series of aromatic compounds. He 
discovered the first representative of the oxazines, a 
group which has since been developed into one of 
great importance. He has contributed to the chem- 
istry of naphthalene derivatives, and carried out ex- 
tensive researches upon the azo- and diazo-compounds, 
with results which have an important bearing upon 
the question of the constitution of these compounds. 
He has likewise added to our knowledge of the 
chemistry of other groups of nitrogen-containing com- 
pounds, notably the triazines and the iminazoles. Of 
late years he has shown the synthetical value of com- 
pounds containing a mobile nitro-group, and has dis- 
covered a remarkable new class of quinone-ammonium 
derivatives. 
The Sylvester medal is conferred this year on the 
veteran mathematician, James Whitbread Lee 
