124 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



bodied, without question, alike in the most wide-ranging speculations and 

 the most matter-of-fact practice. 



The award of two Medals for the same researches is an exceedingly rare 

 proceeding in our Society, and rightly so. The Council have on this 

 occasion desired to mark by it, in the most emphatic manner, their sense 

 of the special and original character, and high desert of Mr. Joule's 

 discovery. No words of mine could add to the value of the award. 



Mr. Joule, 



I present you with this Medal, in testimony of the very high sense 

 which the Royal Society entertains of your researches, and of the results to 

 which they have led. 



The Council has awarded a Royal Medal to Professor William Hallowes 

 Miller, Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society, for his researches and 

 writings on Mineralogy and Crystallography, and for his scientific labours 

 in the restoration of the National Standard of Weight. 



These last-named labours appeared to me to have, from their national 

 importance conjoined with great scientific merit, so peculiar a claim to a 

 Royal Medal, that it was preeminently on this ground that I ven- 

 tured myself to propose the award ; and for the same reason I have ob- 

 tained permission from the Astronomer Royal, who is the Chairman of the 

 Standards Commission, to give here in full a statement from his pen, in 

 which, as a Member of that Commission, I most entirely concur. 



" For full explanation of the considerations which have guided the Council 

 " in awarding a Royal Medal to Professor Miller, it appears necessary to 

 " advert to some circumstances occurring at a time anterior to that which is 

 " recognized as limiting the claims that can be examined in reference to the 

 " award of a Medal. When, after the fire which destroyed the Houses of 

 " Parliament, it was ascertained that the National Standards of Length and 

 " Weight (then preserved in the Parliament-buildings) were entirely ruined, 

 " a Commission was appointed to consider the questions connected with the 

 " Restoration of the Standards. Although Professor Miller was not a 

 " Member of that Commission, his friendly assistance contributed greatly to 

 " guide the Commission m some of their more important recommendations, 

 " especially in those which related to the means to be provided for con- 

 " tingent restoration of the Standard of Weight. The Commission proposed 

 " in their Report (among a number of less conspicuous regulations), the 

 <f repeal of the law providing a physical principle of restoration of the 

 " standards, substituting for it a reference to existing copies, and the esta- 

 blishment of a Department of Standards. A Commission was then ap- 

 " pointed for construction of the New National Standards ; and the services 

 " of Professor Miller, as Member of this Commission, were invaluable. His 

 " paper in the Philosophical Transactions, describing the operations for re- 

 " storing the value of the Old Standard of Weight, for constructing the New 

 " Standard of a different value, for constructing various derived Standards, 



