sive range of literature and science. In his capacity of inspector of the university, he devoted himself with extraordinary zeal to the improvement of the national education of France in all its depart- ments, from the highest to the lowest. It was in the course of one of his tours of inspection that he was attacked at Strasburg with paralysis ; the same disease which, under similar circumstances, had proved fatal to his brother, and likewise in the same year of his age.
Dr. Martin van Marum was secretary to the Batavian Society of Sciences at Haarlem, and superintended the publication of their Transactions for many years. He was also director of the Tey- lerian Museum at the same place, and the noble library of natural history and science which adorns that establishment was chiefly collected by his exertions : it was under his directions also that the great electrical machine belonging to the Teylerian Museum was constructed, and he published in 1795 and 1800 the results of a very extensive series of experiments on the various forms of elec- trical phenomena which were produced by it, and more particularly with reference to a comparison of its effects with those produced by a powerful voltaic pile, which were undertaken at the express request of Volta himself. Dr. van Marum was remarkable for his very various acquirements, and was the author of many memoirs in the Haarlem and other Transactions, on botanical, chemical, physical, and other subjects : he was a man of the most simple habits and of the most amiable character, and devoted himself most zealously during the greatest part of a very long life to the cultivation of science, and to the promotion of the interests of the establishment over which he presided.
Gentlemen, I have now arrived at the last and most painful part of my duty in addressing you, which is most gratefully and most re- spectfully to bid you farewell.
On the motion of Mr. Davies Gilbert, seconded by Mr. Hatchett, it was unanimously resolved that the cordial thanks of the Society be presented to His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex for the nu- merous and valuable services which he has rendered the Society during the period of his filling the oflace of their President.
The following Report of the Council respecting the awards they have made of two Copley Medals, two Royal Medals, and one Rum- ford Medal, was read.
The Council have awarded a Copley Medal to Professor Gauss, for his researches and mathematical researches on Magnetism.
Professor Gauss's labours on the subject of magnetism, published at various periods, and continued with increasing activity up to the present time, have given to our knowledge of that subject very valuable and striking additions. In his dissertation entitled, " Intensitas vis magneticae terristris at mensuram absolutam revocata," (Gottingen, 1833,) he showed how, by a skilful combination of experiment with mathematical calculation, several of the most difficult
