Page:History of the Royal Astronomical Society (1923).djvu/267

 1880-1920] ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY 235 We have only to record one other attempt to effect a consider- able change in the Bye-Laws. This was made on four different occasions by the late Mr. Ranyard, and the object was to stop the presentation of Gold Medals. He first entered the lists at the Annual Meeting in 1886, when he moved that Bye-Laws 71 to 76, referring to the medal, be repealed. This met with no sympathy, and the arguments adduced by Mr. Ranyard were very few and trivial, being mainly that the giving of medals was wrong in prin- ciple and that three whole Council meetings were given up to the discussion as to who was to have the medal. This, by the way, is not the case, as there is only discussion at one meeting, and then it does not take up the whole time. Only three members voted for the motion. The next year Mr. Ranyard tried his luck again, but this time he went on a different tack. He merely moved that no medal be given " unless the nominee selected be a foreign astronomer not resident in Great Britain." His principal arguments were : first, that the Society should not give rewards to its own members, but should be " above suspicion, like Caesar's wife " ; and secondly, that it might do a man a great deal of harm to be always hoping for distinctions and feeling disappointed if he did not get them. In support of this he quoted some anecdotes from Arago's Bio- graphies. But he failed completely to carry the meeting with him, and equally unlucky was an amendment proposed, that no member of the Council should receive the medal. Nothing daunted, Mr. Ranyard came back again in 1888 February with his original motion of 1886, and that time he very nearly succeeded, as twenty-three members voted for and twenty- three against the motion. But the President gave his casting vote against it. After this approach to a success, Mr. Ranyard waited two years before renewing his onslaught. In 1890 February he again moved that no medals should be given to anybody. But the Fellows present were evidently tired of the whole thing, and "the previous question" was carried by a large majority. This was the last time Mr. Ranyard tried to persuade the Society as to this matter, about which he was evidently very much in earnest. He died in 1894, and nobody has ever tried to take up his proposal. The Gold Medal is still given to some astronomer after a full and searching discussion by the Council, and is always accepted with pride and pleasure by the recipient. And nobody has been found to insinuate, even obscurely, that the Council might try and be more like Caesar's wife.* " undesirable " that a Member of Council be proposed for the Medal, unless the proposal is supported by a written notice sent to the President before the
 * All the same, the Council in 1917 January passed a resolution that it is