xxxviii. Proceedings. [ July 2nd, 1897. 



(3) The annual sum of £15. 15s. to be awarded as an 

 honorarium or acknowledgment to be presented to such 

 literary or scientific man of eminence as the Council may 

 select for the delivery by him of a lecture before the 

 members of the Society, and the receipt of such honorarium 

 shall not in any way render the recipient thereof ineligible 

 for the award at the same time of any of the Medals referred 

 to. 



In accordance with the regulations I have just read the 

 Council have selected Sir George G. Stokes as the recipient 

 of the Wilde Medal for 1896. They have done so (1) on 

 account of his pre-eminent services to Mathematical and 

 Physical Science, and (2) having regard to the standing 

 which he occupies in relation to leading physicists of this 

 and other countries. 



As regards the first head it seems unnecessary to 

 enumerate in detail merits which have been so universally 

 recognised both here and abroad. It will be enough to 

 recall that he was the pioneer in the great modern develop- 

 ment of Hydrodynamics, and has made permanent contri- 

 butions both to the general theory and its applications ; 

 that he is the author of many highly original papers on 

 questions of Physical Optics, a subject on which he is 

 still a leading authority ; that he has made at least one 

 experimental research of first-rate importance, viz., that on 

 the nature of fluorescence ; and that his papers on the 

 "Figure of the Earth" and on "Fourier's Theorem" have 

 taken rank as classics in subjects which are especially 

 remarkable for the number and eminence of the mathema- 

 ticians who have been engaged on them. 



As regards the second head it may be remarked that 

 Sir George Stokes was the senior, and, to some extent, 

 the teacher, of such men as Lord Kelvin, Maxwell, and 

 Professor Tait, who have all recorded in the highest terms 

 their admiration of Stokes' work and the assistance which 

 they have themselves received from his writings. Similar 

 appreciation has been shown by distinguished men of 



