Abstract
WE recently announced that the Paris Academy of Sciences had presented an appropriate medal to those Frenchmen who were engaged in observing the recent transit of Venus, as well as to all the members of the Academy. By the kindness of the editor of La Nature we are able to give an illustration of the principal face of this medal, the design being that of the artist M. Alphée Dubois. It will be seen that the artist has had recourse to mythology to represent under a graceful form the important astronomical phenomenon. Venus, in the simple costume of the goddesses, passes before the car of Apollo, the god of the sun, while Science observes the phenomenon on the earth and records the results. The legend is the composition of a member of the Academy of Inscriptions. On the obverse of the medal is the following inscription:—
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The French Transit Medal . Nature 16, 11–12 (1877). https://doi.org/10.1038/016011a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/016011a0