eae 
XIV. 
AWARD OF THE BOYLE MEDAL TO GEORGE JOHNSTONE 
STONEY, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., at the Evening Scientific 
Meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, held March 22nd, 1899. 
Dr. J. Jouy, F.R.S., read the following statement which he had 
prepared upon the institution of the Boyle Medal :— 
In former years, it is on record, that the Royal Dublin Society 
occasionally presented medals to men distinguished in science. 
But the Society never at any time possessed a medal specially 
instituted for the purpose—a medal dedicated to the memory of 
a great Irishman, and destined to mark the Society’s appreciation 
of the scientific work of those happily still living amongst us. 
The awarding of such a medal is a recent addition to the 
functions of this Society. The value of such an institution is 
unquestionable. It is to the Society a power of speech, a means 
of expressing her measured opinion that the work of the recipient 
is worthy of the highest honour. But not only is this old 
Society thus enabled to speak her thoughts and to place them upon 
record, but as the roll of the Boyle Medallists lengthens with the 
passage of time, will not this roll be an honourable record for 
her? The greatest Irishmen will, as we hope, have their names 
inscribed upon it, and be numbered among those who have honoured 
her by accepting her honours. 
It was not without due consideration that the life-work of the 
Hon. Robert Boyle was chosen as that which might be most fitly 
commemorated by this medal. That Boyle did more for science 
than any other of the great Irishmen who have passed away is 
not too much to maintain. His name is not, indeed, associated 
with any profound discovery; the celebrated law by which it is 
known to every educated man might have been achieved by a 
SCIEN. PROC. R.D.S., VOL. IX., PART I. H 
