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their honours : these may cherish the possession of such monuments, 

 as recording the reverence and respect of their contemporaries and 

 fellow-labourers. To their hands, therefore, we commit them, as our 

 last public offering to their memories. lilt kabeant secum, serventque 

 sepulchro. 



The two other Medals for the corresponding years were awarded 

 to two distinguished foreign Astronomers. The first, to Professor 

 Struve, of Dorpat, who is so justly celebrated for his numerous and 

 valuable observations of double stars, — a department of astronomy 

 which is daily acquiring an increase of interest and importance, from 

 the new and extensive views which it is beginning to open to us of 

 the constitution of the remoter parts of the universe, and of the laws 

 which seem to govern some at least of the periodical changes which 

 they are undergoing. The second, to Professor Excke, of Berlin, 

 the greatest of modern astronomical calculators, who first determined 

 and predicted the motion of the comet which is justly signalized by 

 his name, with an accuracy approaching to that which before be- 

 longed to the ephemerides of the planets only ; and who still more has 

 subjected the discrepancies between its tabulated and observed places 

 to so accurate an analysis as to make them the foundation of the most 

 novel and unexpected speculations respecting the existence of a re- 

 sisting medium, which is capable of sensibly affecting the motions of 

 those extraordinary bodies which obey the laws of gravity, at the same 

 time that they seem to present few or none of those characters with 

 which our notions of matter and substance are commonly associated. 



The Medals for the years 1829 and 1830 were adjudged to Sir 

 Charles Bell, to Professor Mitscherlich of Berlin, to Sir David 

 Brewster, and to M. Balard of Montpellier. 



To the first, for his elaborate experiments and discoveries relating 

 to the nervous system, which place him in the highest rank of the 

 physiologists and anatomists, not merely of this country, but of 

 Europe. 



To the second, for his theory of isomorphism, one of those Erreat 

 generalizations in the sciences of chemistry and crystallography 

 which are reserved for men of large and extensive views, and which 

 may be considered as constituting a great epoch in their history. 



To the third, for his discoveries relating to the polarization of 

 light, the most important laws of which he determined ; forming one 

 of those great series of experimental investigations relating to the 

 properties of light and the optical properties of crystals which are 

 unrivalled, since the time of Newton, for their variety, their delicacy, 

 and perhaps also for their theoretical importance. 



To the last, for a singularly successful and well developed example 

 of chemical analysis, which terminated in the discovery of a new, and 

 hitherto undecompounded body, Bromine. 



I now come to the consideration of the Medals upon the Founda- 

 tion of His present Majesty ; and it is the King's pleasure that the 

 President and Council of the Royal Society should be considered as 

 his official advisers, in the award of an honour which emanates imme- 

 diately from himself. His Majesty has also been graciously pleased 



