i88o.] Scientific Progress of the Past Year . 23 
new among them either in matter or in method. But a mere 
enumeration of these things, however interesting in them- 
selves, would form but a dull chapter, unless it should issue 
in a judicial estimate of results, or a suggestive comparison 
of national arrangements for the promotion of science. On 
such an enterprise I am by no means prepared to adventure 
myself ; and even if I should be ever led to make the attempt 
on some special topic, or some particular aspect of the 
question, I must, at all events, defer it to a future occasion. 
The Award of the Royal Society Medals. — The Copley 
Medal has been awarded to Rudolph Julius Emmanuel 
Clausius, Foreign Member of the Royal Society, for his 
investigations in the Mechanical Theory of Heat. 
The Mechanical Theory of Heat as at present understood 
and taught has been so essentially a matter of growth, that 
it would be difficult to assign to each investigator the precise 
part which he has taken in its establishment. It will, how- 
ever, be admitted by all, that the researches of Clausius rank 
high among those which have mainly contributed to its 
development. These researches extend over a period of 
thirty years, and embrace important applications of the theory 
not only to the steam engine, but to the sciences of electricity 
and magnetism. 
Even to enumerate those who have contributed to one 
branch of the subject, viz., the Kinetic Theory of Gases, 
would be beyond my present purpose and powers ; but as 
Clausius himself states, both Daniel and John Bernoulli* 
wrote on the subjea. And, even, to go. back to earlier 
times, Lucretius! threw out the idea ; while Gassendi, and 
our own Boyle, appear to have entertained it. Within our 
own recollection, Joule, Meyer, Kroning, Clerk Maxwell, and 
others have made invaluable contributions to this branch, as 
well as to the general subjea of the Mechanical Theory of 
Heat. But however great the value of these contributions, 
it may safely be stated that the name of Clausius, will 
always be associated with the development of earlier ideas 
into a real scientific theory. 
A Royal Medal has been awarded to W. H. Perkin, F.R.S. 
Mr. William Perkin has been, during more than twenty 
years, one of the most industrious and successful investi- 
gators of Organic Chemistry. 
Mr. Perkin is the originator of one of the most important 
* In the 10th se&ion of his “ Hydrodynamics.” 
f “ De rerum Natura,” lib. ii, nx — 140. 
