Society that he may be long enabled to carry on inquiries so honour- able to himself, and so important to more than one branch of science.
Professor Daniell, I hold in my hand, and deliver to you one of the Copley Medals, which has been awarded by us to Professor Liebig. My principal difficulty, in the present exercise of this the most agreeable part of my official duty, is to know whether to consider M. Liebig's inquiries as most important in a chemical or in a phy- siological light. However that may be, he has a double claim on the scientific world, enhanced by the practical and useful ends to which he has turned his discoveries. I hope that he may long be able to follow at the same time the paths of scientific research and practical utility.
Professor Daniell, I have again to call on you, in your official capacity, to transmit a Medal to the Continent. The gentle- man to whom we have adjudged it is M. Sturm, for his valu- able mathematical labours, the fruits of which must be important, not only to mathematics, but also to those other high and abstruse sciences to whose advancement algebraical analysis is a necessary instrument. In his solution, therefore, of a problem which has baffled some of the greatest mathematicians that the world has pro- duced, he has well earned the gratitude of every lover of natural knowledge.
You will, Gentlemen, hear read an account of the eminent men connected with our Society whom we have had the misfortune to lose since last November. Having confided the task of enumerating them to one of your Members, more able than myself to do justice to their merits, 1 shall not further touch upon the subject than to express my deep regret at the decease of one who had been my predecessor in this Chair, and to whose counsel I might have looked for aid in any conjuncture of difficulty, with full reliance on his good sense and ability, and also on his zeal in any matter in which the interests of the Royal Society were at stake. I may also be per- mitted to express the condolence of all the Members of the Royal Society with the domestic affliction of our valued Treasurer by the decease of his father, who was also one of our Fellows. I will now desire Dr. Roget to read the account of those whom we now miss from our ranks.
The first name in the list of our deceased Fellows, which it is my melancholy duty to notice, is one which cannot be mentioned in this room, without feelings of deep regret for the loss of his services and of affectionate respect for his many virtues : it is hardly necessary for me to add that I refer to our late associate and former President, Mr. Davies Gilbert.
He was the only surviving son of the Rev. Edward Giddy, of St. Erth in Cornwall, and his mother, whose maiden name was Da vies, was the representative of several ancient and distinguished families in that county, and the heiress likewise of very considerable pro- ])erty. His early education, which was almost entirely domestic, was
