100 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



devoted himself of late, is the mapping of the photographic spectra of 

 stars. This was a research of great delicacy, partly on account of the 

 small quantity of light at the disposal of the observer, partly from the 

 great accuracy with which the comparison had to be made with the 

 spectra of known substances, in order that satisfactory conclusions 

 should be deducible as to the presence or absence of such or such 

 substances in the stars. The results obtained, led to a remarkable 

 division of the stars into two great .classes, naturally with transition 

 cases, namely, white stars, which showed a group of twelve dark 

 lines belonging, apparently, to the same substance, probably hydrogen, 

 and the group of stars, of which our own sun may be taken as a type. 



Besides the researches already mentioned, other papers have been 

 presented by Dr. Huggins to the Royal Society, on the spectra of 

 comets, on the spectrum of Uranus, and in particular one in which 

 he showed that it was possible to detect the heat of the stars, 

 and has given the results obtained for several. 



The Davy Medal has been awarded to Professor Charles Friedel, 

 Member of the Institute of France. 



From 1856 to the present time, the investigations of M. Charles 

 Friedel, ranging over widely remote fields of chemical inquiry, have 

 been continuous, numerous, and important. Mineralogical, theoretical, 

 and general chemistry are indebted to him for many valuable contri- 

 butions ; but it is in the department of so-called organic chemistry 

 that he has more especially laboured ; and herein he has done much 

 to assist in breaking down the barriers at one time regarded as im- 

 passably isolating the chemistry of carbon compounds. 



Among the subjects of M. Friedel's successful work may be men- 

 tioned more particularly the chemistry of the 3- carbon family of 

 organic bodies, to which belong propionic acid, lactic acid, glycerine, 

 propylene, and acetone. The establishment of the constitution of 

 lactic acid and of acetone, with the determination of the relationships 

 to one another of the various, and in many cases isomeric, members of 

 this large family, constituted for a long time one of the most fiercely 

 contested as it was, and is, one of the most fundamental problems of 

 organic chemistry. In the labours effecting the satisfactory solution 

 of this problem, M. Friedel bore a large share. 



Passing to another branch of investigation, M. Friedel, partly bv 

 himself, but largely in conjunction in some parts of the work wilb 

 Mr. J. M. Crafts, and in other parts with M. A. Ladenburg, made out, 

 or confirmed in a very striking manner, the analogy subsisting between 

 the modes of combination of carbon and of silicon, the most charac- 

 teristic elements of the organic and inorganic kingdoms respectively. 



To mention but one more subject of M. Friedel's research, he has, 

 in conjunction with Mr. J. M. Crafts, made out and defined a simple 



