1882.] 



President's Address. 



327 



On the motion of Sir Charles Shad well, seconded by Dr. Gilbert, 

 it was resolved : — "That the thanks of the Society be returned to the 

 President for his Address, and that he be requested to allow it to be 

 printed." 



The President then proceeded to the presentation of the Medals : — 



The Copley Medal has been awarded to Professor Arthur Cayley, 

 F.R.S., for his numerous profound and comprehensive researches in 

 Pure Mathematics. 



One Royal Medal has been awarded to Professor William Henry 

 Flower, F.R.S. During the last thirty years Professor Flower has 

 been actively engaged in extending our knowledge of Comparative 

 Anatomy and Zoology in general and of the Mammalia in particular. 



His Memoirs on the Brain and Dentition of the Marsupialia pub- 

 lished in the "Phil. Trans." for 1865 and 1867, established several 

 very important points in morphology, and finally disposed of sundry 

 long-accepted errors. 



His paper " On the Value of the Characters of the Base of the 

 Cranium in the Carnivora" (1869), and numerous memoirs on the 

 Cetacea, are hardly less valuable additions to zoological literature. 



Professor Flower has been for more than twenty years Curator of 

 the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and it is very largely 

 due to his incessant and well-directed labours that the museum at 

 present contains the most complete, the best ordered, and the most 

 accessible collection of materials for the study of vertebrate structure 

 extant. 



The publication of the first volume of the new Osteological 

 Catalogue in 1879, affords an opportunity for the recognition of 

 Professor Flower's services in this direction. It contains carefully 

 verified measurements of between 1,300 and 1,400 human skulls, and 

 renders accessible to every anthropologist a rich mine of cranological 

 data. 



The other Royal Medal has been awarded to Lord Rayleigh, M.A., 

 F.R.S. 



The researches of Lord Rayleigh have been numerous, and extend 

 over many different subjects; and they are all characterised by a rare 

 combination of experimental skill with mathematical attainments of 

 the highest order. 



One class of investigations to which Lord Rayleigh has paid much 

 attention is that of vibrations, both of gases and of elastic solids. 

 The results of most of these researches are now embodied in Lord 

 Rayleigh's important work on the " Theory of Sound " — a work 

 which not only presents the labours of others up to the time of 

 writing in a digested and accessible form, but is full of original matter. 



VOL. XXXIV. Z 



