22 
Froceedings of the Boyal Society 
wiJl take it upon me to say, satisfactory testimony. Of these Scot- 
land has just cause to be proud. Nor, on the whole, have we to 
complain of any deterioration in the memoirs by which this Society 
becomes known to the learned world. The second fulfilment of 
our objects of incorporation seems in some danger of being forgot- 
ten. While the older members of the Society must feel a pleasure 
in meeting, fortnight by fortnight, those with whom they worked in 
earlier days, or with whom they perhaps strove in generous rivalry, 
thus keeping alive those embers of mutual interest which the 
changing gales of life are too ready to disperse and extinguish, 
they may also lend their countenance to the efforts of younger men 
who are treading in . their steps, and who may soon, if they 
have not already done so, occupy their own seats of infiuence or 
of honour. They may thus aid in giving coherence to the chain 
which binds generation to generation in the pursuit of truth, and 
in establishing a personal relation between the intellect of each, the 
impressive influence of which we are too apt to forget. I say, gen- 
tlemen, that this is a personal affair, which no abstract ideas can 
supersede, — I say that no popular lecture, listened to by hundreds 
of persons immediately to be dispersed into their specific individu- 
ality, no perusal of scientific digests in the study or at the fire- 
tion of personal intercourse amongst literary men — we may add a third, that of 
rewarding meritorious papers or discoveries by medals and other more or less 
honorary distinctions. Such have existed both in British and Foreign Socie- 
ties from an early period until the present. They are of two classes : rewards 
offered by anticipation for researches on definite subjects proposed (this 
obtains mostly abroad) ; and premiums awarded to the best paper or most con- 
siderable discovery, either in science generally, or in some specified branch of 
it. This last form is more usual in this country ; and such premiums are our 
Keith, Brisbane, and Neill medals. I think we must conclude that the 
foreign system has worked best. Many considerable memoirs of the last cen- 
tury on'physical astronomy and similar subjects were offered in competition 
for such prizes. The stimulus is one which addresses itself variously to dif- 
ferent minds, and on the whole seems to be less effective in these later times. 
One disadvantage of the award of medals for researches not previously defined, 
is the greater difficulty of awarding them without partiality or bias. A fourth 
kind of encouragement to science which our societies sometimes exert is the 
bestowal of funds for the prosecution of experimental investigations. This is 
frequently a stimulus of no small value. It was first systematically applied 
in this country by the British Association ; and the Government of the coun- 
try have wisely committed an annual fund for such purposes to be dispensed 
by the Royal Society of London, 
