1881.] 



Election of Fellows. 



67 



the plane of polarisation consequent upon a change in the propor- 

 tion of the active ingredients which enter into the solution. This 

 is a problem towards the solution of which ordinary chemical 

 methods can contribute but little. A single instance will suffice to 

 give an idea of the nature of the results. It is known that quinine 

 forms with many acids two series of salts, one having twice the 

 quantity of acid of the other for the same quantity of base, while 

 with other acids only the less acid salt has been obtained ; so that the 

 ordinary chemical methods fail to give evidence of the existence of 

 the more acid salt. Now, by examining the rotatory power of a 

 solution of a given quantity of base with different doses of acid, 

 Dr. Jellett was able to obtain evidence of the existence of two, and 

 but two, salts of the base, no matter whether the acid were or were 

 not one which yields two crystallisable salts. A slight deviation in 

 the amount of rotation when the more acid salt began to be formed 

 in tolerable quantity, from what it ought to have been, on the supposi- 

 tion that the whole of the acid introduced was combined with the 

 quinine, was naturally attributed to a slight partition of the acid 

 between the base and the solvent, regarded as a feeble base ; but the 

 smallness of the deviation indicated that a solution of the more acid 

 salt mainly existed as such, and that it was not, as some had supposed, 

 decomposed into free acid and the less acid salt. 



The Davy Medal has been awarded to Professor Adolf Baeyer, 

 who was already known as the author of many masterly researches 

 in organic chemistry, among which those on uric acid and on 

 mellitic acid deserve special mention, before his latest and most 

 remarkable discovery. The process for the artificial formation and 

 manufacture of indigo is the result of long- continued efforts, directed 

 by singularly clear and accurate views of the order and mode of 

 combination of its constituent elements, and of the conditions requisite 

 for obtaining reactions indicated by theory. 



The Statutes relating to the election of Council and Officers were 

 then read, and Mr. Kempe and Mr. McLachlan having been, with 

 the consent of the Society, nominated Scrutators, the votes of the 

 Fellows present were taken, and the following were declared duly 

 elected as Council and Officers for the ensuing year : — ■ 



President. — William Spottiswoode, M.A., D.C.L., LL.D. 

 Treasurer. — John Evans, D.C.L., LL.D. 



Foreign Secretary. — Professor Alexander William Williamson, Ph.D., 



Secretaries. — 



Professor Greorge Gabriel Stokes, M.A.,D.C.L., LL.D. 

 Michael Foster, M.A., M.D., LL.D. 



LL.D. 



f 2 



