550 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



highly of his scheme." This note seems to have been given to 

 Prof. Youmans to present to Mr. Croll. Mr. Croll wrote to Mr. 

 Darwin in reply to it that " the gentleman wished me to write a 

 small treatise on Geological Time; but I explained to him that, 

 in the present state of the question, nothing satisfactory could be 

 written on it which would be of any service to general readers. I 

 believe he felt satisfied that the better plan was to let this subject 

 lie over for some time to come." In February, 1872, on motion of 

 Prof. Ramsay, the Geological Society of England awarded the 

 balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund to Mr. 

 Croll "for his many valuable researches on the glacial phenomena 

 of Scotland and to aid in prosecuting the same." In communicat- 

 ing the award to Prof. Ramsay, Prof. Prestwich, President of the 

 society, added, " Mr. Croll is also well known to all of us by his 

 investigation of oceanic currents and their bearings on geological 

 questions, and of many questions of great theoretical interest con- 

 nected with some of the large problems in geology." 



The book embodying the results of Mr. Croll's glacial studies 

 of twenty years Climate and Time in their Geological Rela- 

 tions ; a Theory of Secular Changes of the Earth's Climate was 

 published early in 1875. It was accepted at once by scientific 

 men everywhere as a work of great importance and of equal 

 merit and interest ; and it has not fallen from the position it took 

 then and has held since. Men might controvert some of the 

 author's arguments or dispute his conclusions, but no one was 

 found to deny that it was an honest and able book and a real 

 contribution to knowledge. Honors came to him after its publi- 

 cation from various directions ; in the form of personal acknowl- 

 edgments from the most distinguished men of science in their 

 letters to him, and in the recognition of learned institutions and 

 societies. The University of St. Andrews gave him the degree of 

 LL. D. ; the Royal Society of London elected him a fellow ; the 

 New York Academy of Science made him an honorary member ; 

 and he was chosen an honorary member of the Bristol Natural 

 Society, of the Psychological Society of Great Britain, of the 

 Glasgow Geological Society, of the Literary and Antiquarian 

 Society of Perth, and of the Perthshire Society of Natural 

 Science. He received also the award of the Murchison Fund in 

 1876 and of the Badow-Jamieson Fund in 1884. His reply to 

 the proffer of the St. Andrews degree reveals the character of the 

 man. He said, " I hope you will not deem it affectation when I 

 say that I do not consider that I have done anything deserving 

 of such an honor, and that I must look upon it more as a reward 

 to a self-taught man for a long and persevering struggle against 

 difficulties than for any possible results which he has as yet been 

 able to achieve." 



