456 



Anniversary Meeting. 



[Nov. 30, 



hopes that this very desirable object may yet be accomplished, 

 notwithstanding the magnitude of any such undertaking. 



Within the last year the Council of the Royal Society has accepted 

 a duty in connexion with scientific agriculture, of which it will be 

 interesting to the Fellows to be informed. It is well known that for 

 the last fifty years, or thereabouts, Sir John Lawes has carried out 

 on his estate at Rothamsted an elaborate and most persevering 

 series of experiments on the conditions which influence the growth 

 and yield of crops of various kinds, the effect of manures of different 

 kinds, the result of taking the same crop, year after year, from off the 

 same land without supplying to it any manure, &c. Long as these 

 experiments have already been continued, there are questions, par- 

 ticularly as regards the capabilities of the sub- soil, which require 

 for their satisfactory answers that similar experiments should be 

 continued on the same land for a still longer period. In respect of 

 such questions, the investigator of the science of agriculture is in a 

 position resembling that in which the astronomer is often placed, in 

 having to make observations, the full interest of which it must be left 

 to posterity to enjoy. 



To prevent the interruption of these experiments, which it would 

 take a life- time to repeat on fresh ground, and at the same time to 

 provide for the carrying out of researches generally bearing on the 

 science of agriculture, Sir John Lawes has created a trust, securing 

 to the trustees a capital sum of £100,000, and leasing to them for 

 ninety-nine years, at a peppercorn rent, certain lands in his demesne 

 on which the experiments have hitherto been carried on, together 

 with his laboratory. The trust is intended to be for original research, 

 not for the instruction of students.. The general direction of the 

 experiments and researches to be carried on is vested in a committee 

 of management consisting of nine persons, of whom four are to be 

 appointed by the President and Council of the Royal Society. 



The trustees named in the deed were Sir John Lubbock, Dr. Wells, 

 and our treasurer, Dr. Evans. One of these is now no more. Lord 

 Walsingham has been appointed a trustee in place of the late 

 Dr. Wells. 



The Copley Medal for the year has been awarded to Dr. Salmon 

 for his various papers on subjects of pure mathematics, and for the 

 valuable mathematical treatises of which he is the author. Dr. 

 Salmon's published papers are all valuable. Among others may be 

 mentioned his researches on the classification of curves of double 

 curvature, and on the condition for equal roots of an equation ; the 

 very important theorem of the constant anharmonic ratio of the four 

 tangents of a cubic curve ; his researches on the theory of reciprocal 

 surfaces ; his paper on quaternary cubics. But any notice of his con- 

 tributions to the advancement of pure mathematics would be incom- 



