December 27, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



901 



other physical phenomena to increase the 

 accuracy of measurement. Numerous valu- 

 able papers have appeared, either in col- 

 lahoration with Professor Miehelson and 

 others, or in his own name, on such sub- 

 jects. Special reference may be made to 

 his experiments, in conjunction with Pro- 

 fessor Miehelson, on the fundamental ques- 

 tion of the absence of effect of translatory 

 motion of material bodies on luminous phe- 

 nomena. 



His claim to the Davy medal rests on 

 grounds closely related to these researches, 

 for he has combined thorough mastery of 

 accurate measurement with an intimate 

 knowledge of modern chemistry, and has 

 utilized them in his attempt to solve one 

 of the most difficult and fundamental prob- 

 lems of chemical science. The special prob- 

 lem to which he has consecrated many years 

 of his life is the determination of the rela- 

 tive atomic weights of hydrogen and oxy- 

 gen ; it has been attacked by him with rare 

 insight and skill, and with indomitable per- 

 severance, and he seems to have settled it 

 for many years to come, if not perma- 

 nently. All the recent work devoted to 

 this problem, and there has been much, has 

 tended to establish more firmly the ratio 

 arrived at by Professor Morley. 



His determinations of the absolute weights 

 of a liter of hydrogen and of oxygen, and 

 his investigations of the amounts of mois- 

 ture retained by gases dried by various 

 desiccating agents, are of the very greatest 

 importance for scientific progress. 



Professor Wilhelm Wirtinger, of Vienna, 

 is the recipient of the Sylvester medal. He 

 is distinguished for the importance and 

 wide scope of his contributions to the gen- 

 eral theory of functions. Our knowledge 

 of the general properties and character- 

 istics of functions of any number of inde- 

 pendent variables, and our ideas for the 

 further investigation of such functions, are, 

 for the most part, at present bound up with 



the theory of multiply-periodic functions, 

 and this theory is of as great importance 

 for general solid geometry as the ideas of 

 Abel have proved to be for the theory of 

 plane curves. Professor Wirtinger has ap- 

 plied himself for many years to the study 

 of the general problems here involved. A 

 general summary of his researches is given 

 by him in the Abel centenary volume 

 (XXVI., 1902) of the Acta Mathematica. 

 Two of his papers may be particularly re- 

 ferred to, both of 1895. One of these deals 

 with the reduction of the theory and gen- 

 eral multiply-periodic functions to the the- 

 ory of algebraic functions, with a view to 

 their expression by theta functions ; this 

 was one of the life problems of Weierstrass, 

 who did not, however, during his life- 

 time, publish anything more than several 

 brief indications of a method of solution. 

 Professor Wirtinger 's memoir obtains a 

 solution, and is, moreover, characterized 

 throughout by most stimulating depth and 

 grasp of general principles. This paper 

 was followed by two others, one continuing 

 the matter in detail, the other making an 

 application of its principles to the general 

 theory of automorphic functions. Another 

 extensive paper, which obtained the Beneke 

 prize of the Royal Society of Gottingen, 

 deals with the general theory of theta func- 

 tions. In it he obtained results of far- 

 reaching importance, for geometry as well 

 as for the theory of functions, the full de- 

 velopment of which will require many 

 years of work. 



The Hughes medal is awarded to Prin- 

 cipal Ernest Howard Griffiths. Principal 

 Griffitlis has conferred great benefit on 

 physical science by his series of measure- 

 ments of fundamental constants, mainly in 

 the domain of thermal and electric energy. 

 At a time when the equivalent of the 

 thermal unit in mechanical energy stood 

 urgently in need of revision, he devoted 

 himself to the problem with all the refine- 



