Dec. 4, 1S79] 



NATURE 



119 



has often appeared to me to be worthy of consideration, and 

 which from conversations with some of our Fellows appears to 

 meet with sufficient support to justify my bringing it before this 

 our anniversary. I refer to the hour at which our weekly 

 meetings are held. Hitherto, in accordance with the usage of 

 scientific societies in London, we have met in the evening. But 

 changes in the habits of society, and the increasing distances 

 from Burlington House at which many of our Fellows reside, 

 seem to render a large weekly attendance difficult. On this 

 account it appears to me desirable to inquire whether an after- 

 noon hour might not better suit the convenience of our members. 

 In that case, I should suggest 5.0 P.M. ; and as our meetings 

 seldom extend to two hours in duration, it would generally be 

 practicable for Fellows to reach home by about seven o'clock. . . . 



"These changes, if adopted, would require the alteration of 

 the Statute relating to the hour of meeting. But if the sugges- 

 tion were adopted before the end of the year, there would still 

 remain nearly half the Session of our Society after complying 

 with the necessary formalities. . . . 



"It has often been suggested," we read, "that our weekly 

 meetings might be rendered more interesting if the communica- 

 tions were more often accompanied by experiments, or by other 

 modes of optical illustration. The Council has hitherto met 

 these requirements by supplying, from time to time, such appli- 

 ances as appeared necessary. But that important element, the 

 electric light, and batteries on a large scale, have generally 

 been avoided, on account of the inconveniences attending them. 

 It has, however, been thought that authors would be much 

 encouraged to illustrate their communications experimentally if 

 the main appliances were known to be always ready to hand. . . . 



" Again, the mode of lighting our meeting-room by means of 

 sunlights has proved inconvenient to many of our Fellows, on 

 account of its heat and glare ; and it is considered undesirable 

 to adopt ordinary gas-burners in its stead for fear of injury to 

 the pictures. We are, however, no longer driven to this alter- 

 native, as we may now look to the electric light as a possible 

 mode of illumination. 



" These considerations have led me to make an offer, as I now 

 do, to the Society, of a gas-engine of eight horse-power, which, in 

 the opinion of those best qualified to judge, will be amply 

 sufficient both for experimental illustration and for illumination. 

 And I have much pleasure in adding that, on hearing of this 

 offer, our Fellow, Mr. Siemens, immediately expressed his wish 

 to add a dynamo-machine, or rather a pair of such machines, of 

 improved construction (one for alternate, the other for direct 

 currents), the principle of which he had already contemplated 

 bringing before the Society. The other requisites, such as an 

 optical lamp and a few instruments of frequent u>e, will doubt- 

 less soon follow. But, in proposing thus to promote experi- 

 mental illustration of papers read before the Society, I think it 

 right to add that I do not contemplate, nor do I think it desir- 

 able, that the Society should in any sense establish a laboratory ; 

 all that is here intended is, that the main appliances for illus- 

 tration should be found ready to hand here, while the special 

 apparatus would be furnished by the authors themselves." 



With regard to the government grant and fund, it is in the 

 opinion of the President de-irable that the minds, not only of 

 the Council, but also of the Fellows generally should during the 

 pre-ent year be turned to the question, whether it is advisable, 

 in the interests of science, that the fund should be maintained ': 

 and if so, whether in its present or any altered form ? 



In May last the Secretary of State for India asked the advice 

 of the Royal Society on the question of deputing to this country 

 Major J. Herschel on the subject of pendulum observations'. 

 The subject is one in which the Royal Society has on more than 

 ■one occasion taken an active interest ; and a reply, prepared 

 by Prof. Stokes was sent. Major Herschel is on 'his way to 

 England, to carry out the proposed work. 



The Publications of the Society. — The Catalogue of 

 Scientific 1'apers. — The second volume of the supplementary 

 decade, viz., 1S63-73, has been brought to a close, and copies 

 are now in the hands of the Fellows and the public. It exceeds 

 in bulk any of the earlier volumes of the work, and extends to 

 '.3'° pages. In this supplement, 343 additional scientific serials 

 have been catalogued, making the total of such serials now com- 

 prised in the whole no less than 1,938. The donation list for this 

 volume has been the same as that for former volumes, with the 

 addition of a few societies and institutions sanctioned by the 

 Treasury at the recommendation of the Council. The Fellows 

 have tne right to purchase the supplement at the same reduced 



price per volume as the original work. The Council has autho- 

 rised the preparation of titles for another decade ; and some 

 progress has already been made in the work. 



An extra volume of the Philosophical Transactions (vol. 168) 

 has been issued, in which the observations made by the natura- 

 lists who accompanied the Transit of Venus Expeditions to 

 Kerguelen's Land and Rodriguez, and descriptions of their col- 

 lections by persons specially acquainted with the several subjects 

 are brought together. The volume is divided into four sections, 

 viz., the Botany and [Zoology of each of the two islands res- 

 pectively. 



In estimating the affinities of the flora and fauna of Rodri- 

 guez, the authors were under great difficulties owing to our im- 

 perfect knowledge of the plants and animals of the other 

 Mascarene Islands. But almost all their observations point 

 strongly to the conclusion that the present animals and plants are 

 the remains of a once more extensive flora and fauna which has 

 been gradually broken up by geological and climatic changes, and 

 which more recently has been greatly interfered with by the 

 agency of man. 



The papers presented to the Society, and read at the evening 

 meetings, are stated to have been more numerous than in any 

 previous year of its existence, and have during the last twelve 

 months reached a total of 118. Some of them appear to have 

 excited unusual interest among the Fellows and their friends ; 

 for, on more than one occasion the meeting-room was filled to an 

 almost unprecedented degree. 



The President took the opportunity of expressing his own 

 impressions of a few which fall, more or less, within his own 

 range of study, first of all referring to the assiduity and success 

 with which Mr. Crookes has continued his labours. 



The work of the Institution of Telegraph Engineers, the Iron 

 and Steel Institute and other similar associations was then 

 referred to. 



The justification for the award of the medals for the present 

 year was thus stated : — 



The Copley Metal has been awarded to Rudolph Julius Em- 

 manuel Clausius, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, for his 

 investigations in the Mechanical Theory of Heat. 



The mechanical theory of heat as at present understood and 

 taught has been so essentially a matter of growth, that it would 

 be difficult to assign to each investigator the precise part which 

 he has taken in its establishment. It will, however, be admitted 

 by all, that the researches of Clausius rank high among those 

 which have mainly contributed to its development. These 

 researches extend over a period of thirty years, and embrace im- 

 portant applications of the theory not only to the steam-engine, 

 but to the sciences of electricity and magneti-m. 



Even to enumerate those who have contributed to one branch 

 of the subject, viz., the kinetic theory of gases, would be 

 beyond my present purpose and powers ; but as Clausius himself 

 states, both Daniel and John Bernoulli ' wrote on the subject. 

 And, even, to go back to earlier times, Lucretius ' threw out the 

 idea ; while Gassendi, and our own Boyle, appear to have 

 entertained it. Within our own recollection, Joule, Meyer, 

 Kroning, Clerk Maxwell, and others have made invaluable con- 

 tributions to this branch, as well as to the general subject of the 

 mechanical theory of heat. But however great the value of 

 these contributions, it may safely be stated that the name of 

 Clausius will ahvays be associated with the development of earlier 

 ideas into a real scientific thory. 



A Royal Medal has been awarded to W. II. Perkin, F.R.S. 

 Mr. William Perkin has been, during more than twenty years, 

 one of the most industrious and successful investigators of 

 Organic Chemistry. 



Mr. Perkin is the originator of one of the most important 

 branches of chemical industry, that of the manufacture of dye> 

 from coal-tar derivatives. 



Forty-three years ago the production of a violet-blue colour 

 by the addition of chloride of lime to oil obtained from coal-tar 

 was first noticed, ami this having afterwards been ascertained to 

 be due to the existence of the organic base known as aniline, 

 the production of the coloration w as for many years used as a 

 very delicate test for that substance. The violet colour in ques- 

 tion, which was sonn afterwards al*o produced by other oxidising 

 agents, appeared, however, to be quite fugitive, and the possibi- 

 lity of fixing and obtaining in a state of purity the aniline pro- 

 duct which gave rue to it, appears not to have occurred to 



1 In the n>th section of 1"^ " Hydrodynamics." 



2 "De rem 11 Natur.'i, " lib. ii. 1 11— 140. 



