Few Nobel Laureates and few Fellow of the Royal Society receive the highest honours to which a scientist can a pire: The Order Pour le mérite and the Order of Merit. The first Order, founded in 1842 by the Prussian King Frederick William IV, and the second by the English King Edward VII in 1902, have been awarded to the aristocracy of the arts and of the intellect, and amongst them the greatest scientists of almost a century-and-a- half have taken their honoured place. Here the histories of the Order are reviewed and the distinguished scientists listed who have belonged to the chosen few. They were honoured regardles of ex, race, creed or nationality.
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References
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2.
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HeussT., Ein Areopag des Geistes Originally published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung above the initials r.s. On the 100th anniversary of the Order's foundation on 31 May 1942; il has since been widely reproduced. See, for example, Gold und Silber5, 22 (1952). In 1942, Heuss. later to become the first President of the Federal Republic of Germany, was forbidden by the Nazis to publish any of his writings.
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14.
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15.
Private communicalion from Sir Edward Ford, Secretary and Registrar of the Order of Merit, Central Chancery of the Orders of Knighthood. St James's Palace, London SW1.
