are facts of the highest significance, which he has been the first to indicate, and which in many cases he has also proved by observation and by experiments. We refer to his observations on the development of the reproductive bodies of the three orders of Thallogens (Algæ, Lichens, and Fungi), and on the conversion under peculiar conditions of certain forms of their fruit into others;-to the exact determination of the relations, and sometimes of the absolute specific identity of various forms of Fungi previously referred to different tribes; and to the recognition, in many species and genera, of a diversity of methods of reproduction in giving origin to parallel series of forms. As intimately connected with the life-history of Fungi, the intricate subject of vegetable pathology has been greatly elucidated by him; and he is indeed the one British authority in this department. His intimate acquaintance with vegetable tissues, and with the effects of external agents, such as climate, soil, exposure, &c., has enabled him to refer many maladies to their source; and to propose methods, which in some cases have proved successful, of averting, checking, and even curing diseases in some of our most valuable crops. In this line of research he has also demonstrated, on the one hand, that many so-called epiphytal and parasitic Fungi are nothing but morbid conditions of the tissues of the plant; on the other hand, that microscopic Fungi lurk and produce the most disastrous results where their presence had been least suspected. MR. BERKELEY, I present you with this Medal, in testimony of the high opinion which the Botanical Members of the Council of the Royal Society entertain of your researches in Cryptogamic Botany, especially Mycology; in which latter department your writings entitle you, in their judgment, to be considered as the most eminent living author. The Council has awarded a Royal Medal to John Peter Gassiot, Esq., for his researches on the Voltaic Battery and Current, and on the Discharge of Electricity through Attenuated Media. These contributions, most of which are recorded in our Transactions, are of high value, and in some respects peculiar. Their experimental part has been conducted on a scale of magnitude and power unmatched since the days of Davy and of Children, with apparatus of the highest perfection, and with consummate dexterity and skill; and the discussion and interpretation of the facts observed are characterized by sound theory and sober judgment. It would trespass too much on your time were I to give a detailed account of them, and I shall only select a few which are examples of what Bacon has called "Instantiæ Crucis," such as, when the mind is undecided between several paths, point out the true one. 1. The first decides a question which was long debated with great vehemence, whether the energy of the Voltaic Battery arises from the contact of its metals, or from chemical action. The first of these opinions was mainly supported by the fact that, when two dissimilar metals are made to touch, they show signs of opposite electricities when separated. Mr. Gassiot showed, in 1844, that the same occurs when the metals are separated by a thin stratum of air without having been in previous contact. 2. The identity of voltaic with frictional electricity was denied by many, because it gave no spark through an interval of air. Davy had indeed asserted the contrary in his 'Elements of Chemical Philosophy,' but his statement seems to have been doubted or unheeded. Mr. Gassiot, in the Transactions for 1844, has put the fact beyond dispute; he showed that by increasing the number of cells and carefully insulating them, sparks can be obtained even with the feeblest elements. With 3520 cells, zinc and copper excited with rain-water, he obtained sparks in rapid succession throughth of an inch of air; and a little later added to this a fact of still higher significance, that by exalting the chemical action in the cells, the same or even greater effect could be produced by a much smaller series. The battery of 500 Grove's cells which was constructed for these experiments is probably in some respects the most powerful that was ever made. 3. The currents produced by electric or magnetic induction are of the highest interest, and the employment of them as a source of electric power is almost daily enriching physical science with precious results. In this new field Mr. Gassiot has been one of the most successful explorers. So early as 1839 he showed that the induction current gives a real spark, and he found that in the flame of a spirit-lamp it could strike at a distance of ths of an inch. 4. The splendid phenomena produced by the discharge of the induction current through rarefied gases or vapours are well known; in particular the stratification of the light. The cause of this is not yet fully understood, but Mr. Gassiot has made some very important additions to our knowledge of it in the Bakerian Lecture for 1858 and his subsequent communications to the Society. Among these may be named his explanation of the occasionally reversed curvature of the strata, and his discovery of the Reciprocating discharge, which, seeming single, is composed of two, opposite in direction, but detected by the different action of a magnet on each of thema beautiful test, which is of wide application in such researches. Again, the Torricellian vacuum which he used at first, even when absolutely free from air, contains mercurial vapour: by applying to his tubes a potent freezing mixture, he found that as this vapour condensed, the strata vanished, the light and transmission of electricity decreased, till at a very low temperature both ceased entirely. It follows from this that a perfect vacuum does not conduct—a fact of cosmical importance, which had been surmised before, but not proved; and the desire of verifying this discovery led him to a means of far higher rarefaction. A tube containing a piece of fused hydrate of potassa is filled with dry carbonic acid, exhausted to the limit of the air-pump's power, and sealed; then by heating the potassa, the residual carbonic acid is mostly, or even totally absorbed. Vessels so exhausted, though still containing vapour of potassa, and perhaps of water, have a better vacuum than had been previously obtained, and often cease to conduct till a little of the alkali is vaporized by heating them, and the gradual progress of the exhaustion gives a wide range of observation. 5. The current of an induction machine is necessarily intermittent, and it has been supposed that the strata are in some way caused by the intermittence, and are possibly connected with the mode of action of the contactbreaker. Mr. Gassiot has, however, shown that they are perfectly developed in the discharge of an extended voltaic battery through exhausted tubes. The large water-battery already mentioned shows them in great beauty; the discharge, however, is still intermittent. 6. The same appearance is exhibited by a Grove's battery of 400 wellinsulated cells; but in this case a new and remarkable phenomenon presents itself. At first the discharge resembles that obtained from the waterbattery, and is like it intermittent; but suddenly it changes its character from intermittent to continuous (so far at least as can be decided by a revolving mirror), and everything indicates that we have now the true voltaic arc. The discharge is now of dazzling brilliancy, and is stratified as before, whence it appears that strata are capable of being produced by the true arc discharge. 7. This change is accompanied by a remarkable alteration in the heating of the two electrodes. Mr. Gassiot had previously shown that, in the ordinary voltaic arc, formed in air of the usual pressure, the positive electrode is that which is the more heated, whilst in the discharge of an induction machine, whether sent through air at the ordinary pressure between electrodes of thin wire, or through an exhausted tube, it is the negative. The discharge through the large Grove's battery, so long as it was intermittent, agreed with the induction discharge in this character as in others, that the negative electrode was that which became heated; but when the discharge suddenly and spontaneously passed from the intermittent to continuous, the previously heated negative electrode became cool, and the positive was intensely heated. These brief references will suffice to show what a high place Mr. Gassiot holds amongst those who are investigating this new track, which promises such great advance in our knowledge of those molecular forces in the study of which all physical science must ultimately centre. I may be permitted to add, that in his whole career he has sought not his own fame, but the advancement of science; he has rejoiced as much in the discoveries of others as in his own, and aided them by every appliance in his power. I cannot refrain from mentioning a recent instance in which this liberal and unselfish spirit has been strikingly exhibited. He has had executed a grand spectroscope, furnished with no less than nine faultless prisms, a design in which he has been ably seconded by the skill of the optician Mr. Browning, to whom the construction was entrusted. This magnificent instrument he has placed at the disposal of any Fellow of the Society who may happen to be engaged in researches requiring the use of such powerful apparatus. The instrument is at present at the Kew Observatory, where it is in contemplation to undertake the construction of a highly elaborate map of the spectrum. Mr. Gassiot is still pursuing his electrical researches, and we may be assured that he will feel this acknowledgment of his labours by the Royal Society not merely as a recompense for that he has accomplished, but as an obligation to continued exertion and new discoveries. MR. GASSIOT, You will receive this Medal as a mark of the deep interest which the Royal Society takes in the investigations in which you are engaged, and of the high value which it attaches to the results with which you have already enriched our Transactions. These are the grounds on which the Medal has been awarded to you by the Council. But it may be permitted to me to express the hope that you will also associate with it—as it is impossible that we should not do-the Society's recognition of the generous and kindly spirit which has manifested itself, as elsewhere, so also in all your pursuit of Science; and of which one memorial amongst others will remain in future times connected with the Society, in the establishment of the Scientific Relief Fund. On the motion of Professor Owen, seconded by Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, it was resolved" That the thanks of the Society be returned to the President for his Address, and that he be requested to allow it to be printed." The Statutes for the election of Council and Officers having been read, and Dr. W. Farr and Mr. Evans having been, with the consent of the Society, nominated Scrutators, the votes of the Fellows present were collected, and the following were declared duly elected as Council and Officers for the ensuing year :: President.-Major-General Edward Sabine, R.A., D.C.L., LL.D. Treasurer. William Allen Miller, M.D., LL.D. William Sharpey, M.D., LL.D. Secretaries.- {George Gabriel Stokes, Esq., M.A., D.C.L. Foreign Secretary.-Prof. William Hallows Miller, M.A. Other Members of the Council.—James Alderson, M.D.; George Busk, Esq., Sec. L.S.; Col. Sir George Everest, C.B.; Hugh Falconer, M.A., M.D.; John Hall Gladstone, Esq., Ph.D.; Joseph Dalton Hooker, M.D.; Henry Bence Jones, M.A., M.D.; Prof. James Clerk Maxwell, M.A.; Prof. William Pole, C.E.; Archibald Smith, Esq., M.A.; Prof. Henry J. Stephen Smith, M.A.; The Earl Stanhope, P.S.A., D.C.L.; Prof. James Joseph Sylvester, M.A.; Thomas Watson, M.D., D.C.L.; Prof. Charles Wheatstone, D.C.L.; Rev. Prof. Robert Willis, M.A. On the motion of Mr. Brayley, seconded by Mr. Balfour Stewart, the thanks of the Society were voted to the Scrutators. The Society then adjourned. Treasurer. Receipts and Payments of the Royal Society between December 1, 1862, and November 30, 1863. Balance at Bank, and on hand Annual Subscriptions and Compositions Salaries, Wages, and Pension Books for the Library and Binding ... Printing Transactions and Proceedings, Paper, Binding, The Scientific Catalogue Rents 354 2 8 Dividends on Stock. 922 5 10 Tea Expenses.... Tea Expenses and Gas, repaid 77 17 2 Fire Insurance Parcel Charges recovered 14 15 9 Sale of £107 13s. 5d. Consols (Rumford Fund).. 100 0 0 Estates and Property of the Royal Society, including Trust Funds. per annum. Estate at Acton, Middlesex (34 a. 3 r. 11 p.), £110 Os. Od. per annum. Fee farm rent in Sussex, £19 4s. per annum. One-fifth of the clear rent of an estate at Lambeth Hill, from the College of Physicians, £3 per annum. £5133 10 3 Upholstery, Painting, and Miscellaneous House Expenses. Coal and Lighting |