on the presentation of a Medal, 



143 



sacrifices as many of the objects for which nations contend, and ex- 

 haust their physical and moral energies and resources. They are 

 gems of real and durable glory in the diadems of princes,, and 

 conquests which, while they leave no tears behind them, continue 

 for ever unalienable. 



it must be needless for me to express a hope that these researches 

 will be followed up. Already we have to congratulate astronomy 

 on the resolution taken by one of our great academic institutions to 

 furnish its observatory with an heliometer of the same description as 

 Bessel's ; nor can we fear but that the research will speedily be ex- 

 tended to other stars, offering varieties of magnitude, and other indi- 

 cations to draw attention to them. 



On the whole, then, the award of our medal, which the Council 

 have agreed on, seems to me, under the circumstances, fully justi- 

 fied. I will now request the foreign secretary to convey it to our 

 distinguished associate ; and in so doing, I will add our hope that, 

 in the painful and distressing visitation with which it has pleased 

 Providence recently to try him, he may find occasion to withdraw 

 his mind a while from that melancholy contemplation to receive 

 with satisfaction such a tribute to this his last, and perhaps his 

 greatest achievement, accompanied as it is by the truest regard for 

 his private worth, and the most respectful sympathy for his present 

 distress. 



On a Thorny Species of Lizard and other Reptiles from 

 New Holland, described by Mr. Gray. Plate V. 



Having been favoured by our friend Dr. Huffnagle with 

 a species of Thorny Lizard, (plate V), we found it to be one 

 of those new Reptiles, brought to notice by Mr. Gould, as 

 inhabitants of New Holland, and which are described by 

 J. E. Gray, Esq., F. R. S. in the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History, April 1841. The species is that which is 

 named by Mr, Gray, Moloch horridus, and as it has never 



