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Society that he may be long enabled to carry on inquiries so honour- 

 able to himself, and so important to more than one branch of 

 science. 



Professor Daniell, I hold in my hand, and deliver to you one of the 

 Copley Medals, which has been awarded by us to Professor Liebig. 

 My principal difficulty, in the present exercise of this the most 

 agreeable part of my official duty, is to know whether to consider 

 M. Liebig's inquiries as most important in a chemical or in a phy- 

 siological light. However that may be, he has a double claim on 

 the scientific world, enhanced by the practical and useful ends to 

 which he has turned his discoveries. I hope that he may long be 

 able to follow at the same time the paths of scientific research and 

 practical utility. 



Professor Daniell, I have again to call on you, in your official 

 capacity, to transmit a Medal to the Continent. The gentle- 

 man to whom we have adjudged it is M. Sturm, for his valu- 

 able mathematical labours, the fruits of which must be important, 

 not only to mathematics, but also to those other high and abstruse 

 sciences to whose advancement algebraical analysis is a necessary 

 instrument. In his solution, therefore, of a problem which has 

 baffled some of the greatest mathematicians that the world has pro- 

 duced, he has well earned the gratitude of every lover of natural 

 knowledge. 



You will, Gentlemen, hear read an account of the eminent men 

 connected with our Society whom we have had the misfortune to 

 lose since last November. Having confided the task of enumerating 

 them to one of your Members, more able than myself to do justice 

 to their merits, 1 shall not further touch upon the subject than to 

 express my deep regret at the decease of one who had been my 

 predecessor in this Chair, and to whose counsel I might have looked 

 for aid in any conjuncture of difficulty, with full reliance on his 

 good sense and ability, and also on his zeal in any matter in which 

 the interests of the Royal Society were at stake. I may also be per- 

 mitted to express the condolence of all the Members of the Royal 

 Society with the domestic affliction of our valued Treasurer by the 

 decease of his father, who was also one of our Fellows. I will now 

 desire Dr. Roget to read the account of those whom we now miss 

 from our ranks. 



The first name in the list of our deceased Fellows, which it is my 

 melancholy duty to notice, is one which cannot be mentioned in this 

 room, without feelings of deep regret for the loss of his services and 

 of affectionate respect for his many virtues : it is hardly necessary 

 for me to add that I refer to our late associate and former President, 



Mr. DaVIES GlLBERTo 



He was the only surviving son of the Rev. Edward Giddy, of St. 

 Erth in Cornwall, and his mother, whose maiden name was Da vies, 

 was the representative of several ancient and distinguished families 

 in that county, and the heiress likewise of very considerable pro- 

 ])erty. His early education, which was almost entirely domestic, was 



