1876.] 



Presidenfs Address* 



361 



many years, on the Eesistance, Propulsion, and Form o£ Ships, and on the 

 very important and little-understood question of the law connecting the 

 behaviour of ships, in all these respects, with that of models of ships on 

 a much smaller scale. These experiments have been conducted partly 

 for the government, and with public money ; but they have also very largely 

 taxed lEr. Fronde's own private resources, the sums repaid to him by no 

 means representing his whole expenditure on these matters, and includmg 

 no compensation whatever for his own time or labour. 



The amount of mechanical skill, as well as of theoretical acuteness, 

 which has been exhibited in all this work has placed Mr. Froude in the 

 foremost rank of all investigators on this subject. 'No one, indeed, has 

 ever done more, either theoretically or practically, for the accurate deter- 

 mination of a ship's motion, whether in propulsion or in waves, than Mr. 

 Froude. Without undervaluing other modern writers, it is not too much 

 to say that his investigations at present take completely the lead in this 

 very important question — most important to a maritime nation. 



Mr. Fronde's papers are mainly to be found in the ' Transactions ' of 

 the Institution of JN'aval Architects and of the British Association, as also 

 in separate official reports published as "Blue Books." 



[The Medal w^as received by Mr. Froude.] 



A Eoyal Medal has been awarded to Sir Charles Wyville Thomson, 

 for his successful direction of the scientific investigations carried on by 

 H.M.S.' Challenger.' 



In consequence of representations made to Her Majesty's Govern- 

 ment by the President and Council of the Eoyal Society, the Lords 

 of the Admiralty, in 1872, fitted out and commissioned the ship ' Chal- 

 lenger ' for the purpose of undertaking a survey of the ocean of a more 

 systematic and complete character than any which had hitherto been 

 attempted. 



After crossing the Atlantic in various directions, the distinguished 

 officer. Captain Xares, who was intrusted T^ith the command of the 

 ' Challenger,' was instructed to proceed southward to the Antarctic 

 regions, and thence to take his way along the western side of the Pacific 

 to Japan ; from Japan he was to cross the Pacific, and, running south- 

 ward through its eastern region, to return to England by way of Cape 

 Horn. 



The track taken by Captain IS'ares, and his successor in command, 

 Captain Thomson, covered 69,000 thousand miles ; and the chief objects 

 of the expedition were to obtain at stations of accurately ascertained 

 position, observations by which the temperature of the sea, and its 

 physical and chemical condition, from the surface to the bottom and at 

 all intermediate depths, could be determined, to drag up the sea-bottom 

 itself in quantities sufficient for its satisfactory examination, to ascertain 

 the nature of the fauna at the surface and at the bottom, and to collect 



