Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/121

 1840-50] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 99 be done with regard to the award of the Medal. Agreement upon a single award was, of course, out of the question. The solution adopted was remarkable. Several new titles had arisen in the course of the year that might be held as claims for recognition. " It seemed as if astronomy had exhibited the results of every kind of human aid, and had chosen the year 1847 to show how well she could at once command the highest speculations of mathematical intellect, the laborious perseverance of calculating toil, the discriminating sagacity of the observer, the munificence of mercantile wealth, and the self-devotion of the voluntary exile." When our grandfathers indulge in a sentence like that, we can only bow and stand aside. They decided not to suspend the Bye-law which limited them to one Medal, but to award Testimonials, as many as the occasion demanded. Everybody who was proposed got one, twelve in all, Hansen, Hencke, Herschel, Hind, Lubbock, Le Verrier, Adams, Argelander, Bishop, Airy, Everest, Weisse. The proposals were made by Airy and De Morgan, except Weisse's name, which Galloway added. Hencke and Hind had each by that time two minor planets to their credit. Bishop got it for main- taining his observatory. Airy for the Greenwich lunar reductions (not then completed). Hansen had received the Medal as recently as 1842, and Airy in 1846, Herschel, Hind, Airy, and Adams were on the Council. So with this remarkable procession of talent the troubled incident passes out of our annals. The action of the Council cut the knot, at the expense of prematurely rewarding some and unnecessarily rewarding others, robbing the gift of its one value, rarity and distinction, offending against good taste by rewarding several of its own members, and depleting future years of many of their best candidates. But immediately after the awards fall into their old excellent habit, with Lassell in 1849 for his 24-inch speculum and discoveries of satellites with it, and Otto Struve in 1850. The Mathematical Society, 1717. One of the most interesting events of this decade was the absorption in 1846 of the Society of Mathematicians of Spitalfields. From the earliest days of our Society our Memoirs were presented to the Mathematical Society, for the latter was our senior by more than a century. It was founded in 1717 by one John Middleton, whose portrait we possess. The portrait shows a man of benevolent and practical appearance, holding a geometrical diagram ; a ship under sail is in the background. It is conjectured he may have been a mariner, who gave instruction in navigation. I give here what is recorded of this curious Society ; one would wish to know more, but its early activities can only be guessed from the library it collected. The first Minute-books in existence date from 1800,