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Mr. Darwin, 



I have much pleasure in announcing that a Royal Medal has been 

 awarded to you. 



Adopting the views of Sir Charles Lyell, who has sought to 

 explain natural phenomena by an appeal to the evidence afforded by 

 still active causes, you have observed with great care, and no one 

 has been more judicious, or more successful, in collecting facts. 

 The frequent references made to your labours by writers on general 

 geology, are evidence of the estimation in which they are held. 

 Your work on Coral Reefs is a fine specimen of an able argument on 

 facts. In that work you have brought together all the information 

 collected by others, as well as by yourself, and you have explained 

 the facts observed relating to the distribution of coral reefs, the con- 

 ditions favourable to their increase, the rate of their growth, and the 

 depth at which they are found ; and thus laying a sound foundation 

 to reason upon, you have shown that, with few exceptions, the old 

 theory, that these reefs have been formed on the edges of submarine 

 craters, and generally that the rocky or other basis on which the 

 corals have grown had been elevated, is incorrect ; and, on the con- 

 trary, that the true theory is, that the surface has been gradually 

 brought down to the proper level, a depth for the growth of corals, 

 by gradual subsidence. No one probably can read your book with- 

 out assenting to the general truth of your reasoning; and as it places 

 the fact of subsidence beyond doubt, a fact more difficult to prove 

 than elevation, and exhibits it on a scale of magnitude and genera- 

 lization quite commensurate with that of elevation, I think it must 

 be accepted as one of the most important contributions to modern 

 geology. 



In your Monograph on the Pedunculated Cirripeds, you have 

 treated generally of the structure, economy, and zoological relations 

 of these animals, and given a systematic arrangement and descrip- 

 tion of the different species. In the accomplishment of your task, 

 you have not only made use of previously existing materials with 

 sound and enlightened criticism, but, by the discovery of new facts 

 and the promulgation of original views, contributed most materially 

 to advance the department of knowledge to which your researches 

 more immediately belong, and rendered valuable service to physiolo- 

 gical science in general. 



In the course of your inquiries you have confirmed and widely 

 extended the observations of your predecessors respecting the larval 

 condition of the Cirripeds, and have shown that all the perfect Lepads 

 and Balanids pass through successive stages of metamorphosis. You 

 have also added largely to our knowledge of the anatomy of the 

 larva, and brought to light the curious fact, that in one of its stages 

 its mouth is altogether rudimentary, and perfectly closed up by the 

 external covering, so that the creature in this stage is in fact a 

 locomotive pupa," incapable of feeding. You have further ob- 

 served that the prehensile antennee with which the larva fixes itself 

 in its final change, invariably remain permanent in the adult animal 



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