255 



tion of an Ibbotson and others, to those branches of knowledge 

 which are connected with organic matter. This is, however, not all. 

 Through the interesting observations of Sir J. Herschel and Mr. 

 Hunt, followed up, as they Avill doubtless be, by other philosophers, 

 a vista seems to open into hitherto unexplored regions of science. 



I have the honour. Gentlemen, to inform you that the Council 

 have aw^arded the Royal Medals for the present year to Sir John 

 F. W. Herschel and Professor Wheatstone ; one Copley Medal to 

 Professor Liebig, and another to M. Sturm; and the Rumford 

 Medal to M. Biot. 



Sir John Lubbock. 



It is to me a cause of the highest satisfaction that I have to pre- 

 sent through you this Royal Medal to Sir John F. W. Herschel, 

 being the fourth Medal that has been aw^arded to him by the de- 

 cision of different Councils. 



It is to myself and to the other ?vlembers of the Council a most 

 gratifying circumstance, that in an invention of great interest to art, 

 he has found an instrument capable of making us acquainted with 

 most curious lav^-s regulating the chemical action of the different 

 rays of the spectrum on the same substances. They have an addi- 

 tional interest to us as well as to you, in reminding us of researches 

 made by the honoured parent whose example of scientific zeal 

 he so well emulates. The observations that Sir J. Herschel has 

 made in his recent communication, appear likely to lead to new 

 discoveries in optical as well as chemical science ; and we trust 

 that the papers already before us may be the forerunners of still 

 more striking and important results. 



Professor Wheatstone. 



It is with great pleasure that I address you, and present to you 

 one of those Medals that our Royal Patroness has placed at the dis- 

 posal of the Council of our Society. Your valuable experiments, 

 and the ingenious methods by which you have solved the difficult 

 question of Double Vision, form the immediate, and certainly suffi- 

 cient motive, for their adjudication. It is, hcnvever, still more satis- 

 factory, as it gives me, as their organ, the opportunity to mark their 

 sense of the value of your other discoveries, of the science and in- 

 genuity by which you have measured Electrical Velocity, and by 

 which you have also turned your acquaintance with Galvanism to 

 the most important practical purposes. 



Professor Daniell. 



In confiding to your charge, as our Foreign Secretary, the Rum- 

 ford Medal which the Council has awarded to M. Biot, I am sure 

 that every cultivator of the higher and more abstruse branches of 

 science will feel that it is bestowed on a philosopher, w^hose optical 

 researches on the curious and interesting subject of Polarized Light 

 are of the highest value. You may, at the same time that you for- 

 ward the Medal, assure M. Biot of the anxious w ish of the Royal 



