Page:Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Vol 4.djvu/113

Rh of science which are compreliended in the cycle of the preceding year.

I trust, Gentlemen, that these laws for the distribution of the Royal Medals, if strictly adhered to, and judiciously administered, will be found to stimulate the exertions of men of science, by se- curing to their labours, when inserted in our Transactions, that cer- tain and periodical revision which they are naturally so anxious to obtain ; and by signalizing any remarkable investigation, or notable discovery, by the marked and prompt approbation of those persons in this country who are mxost likely to be able to judge of its value.

It was partly for the furtherance of the same great object, which was proposed in framing the statutes for the award of the Royal Medals, so as to secure to each branch of science in succession its due amount of notice and encouragement, that the Council have determined to establish permanent Committees of Science. They are composed of a selection of those Fellows of the Society who are known to have devoted their attention, in a more especial man- ner, to those departments of science to which they are severally assigned, and to whom all questions connected with such branches are proposed to be referred, including the selection of the memoirs to which the Royal Medals shall be given. The Council have thought proper, likewise, in the formation of these committees, to enlarge the number of the sciences, which form the Medallic cycle above referred to, from six to eight, by separating the science of Meteorology from that of Physics, and the science of Botany and the laws of Vegetable Organization and Life, from that of Zoology and Animal Physiology. I sincerely rejoice. Gentlemen, in the adoption of this arrangement, as I think it admirably calculated to give a more marked and specific distinction to those sciences which the Fellows of the Royal Society are bound more especially, by the obligations of the Charter, to cultivate, and as tending, likewise, to bring those persons who are engaged in common pursuits into more frequent intercourse with each other ; and thus to afford them in- creased opportunities of appreciating their mutual labours, of de- vising new and important trains of investigation, as well as of se- curing public aid and general co-operation in the accomplishment of objects which are too costly or too vast for individuals to under- take or to attempt.

The future developement of many of the sciences is becoming daily more and more dependent upon co-operative labour. We are rapidly approaching great and comprehensive generalizations, which can only be completely established or disproved by very widely distributed and, in many cases, by absolutely simultaneous observa- tions. Major Sabine has lately collected with great labour, and re- duced and analysed with great ability, a vast mass of observations relating to the distribution of the earth's magnetism ; and the result has pointed out not merely the proper fields of our future researches, but likewise their great extent and the enormous amount of labour still required for their cultivation. A society on the continent, headed by the justly celebrated Gauss, to whom the Copley Medal has been