126 .PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY. 



Mr. Marshall said he had great pleasure in moving that the Report 

 and Balance Sheet now presented be received and adopted, and that they 

 be printed in the usual way. He thought the Report was one upon which 

 the Society was to be congratulated, and he was pleased to note that the 

 balance in hand was about double the amount of that which wan 

 reported at the previous Annual Meeting. 



The motion having been seconded by Mr. Gardner, was put to the 

 Meeting, and carried unanimously. 



The President said he had great pleasure in announcing that it had 

 been proposed that the Society should pay two visits to the Natural 

 History Museum at South Kensington. The first of these would take 

 place on Saturday, February 14th, when those who wished to join the 

 party would assemble in the Central Hall, near the Owen statue, at 

 2 p.m., and he hoped himself to conduct them to some points of 

 interest in the Geological Department. The second visit was arranged 

 for Saturday, March 14th, at the same time (2 p.m.), when Mr. 

 Carruthers would act as conductor. Mr. Carruthers proposed to show 

 them some of the treasures of the Botanical Department, including 

 Smith's original collection of Diatoms, and also a remarkable series of 

 original botanical drawings of great interest. No further notice would 

 be given. 



The President also called attention to some models made by Mr. 

 Kirk, exhibited in the room, and to the restored section-model of 

 a remarkable specimen of an abnormal form of Cephalopod shell, 

 Ascoceros, from the Upper Silurian of the Island of Gothland, made 

 and coloured by Mr. G. C. Crick, F.G.S., of the Geological Department, 

 British Museum of Natural History. 



The President then delivered his Annual Address, taking as his 

 subject the development of life as shown by the fossil organisms found 

 in the geological strata. In illustration of this some diagrams were 

 exhibited, one of which showed the ancestral forms of modern Crustacea, 

 or the origin and evolution of the class in geological time, by means of 

 a chart prepared by J. W. Salter and H. Woodward in 1865 ; also two 

 diagrams, one of which gave the order in which the series of sedimentary 

 strata were deposited, and the other an approximate representation of 

 their relative thicknesses ; and he explained that the newer Secondary 

 and Tertiary strata had been successively built up from the destruction 

 of those more massive older formations. Attention was directed to 

 the greater thickness of the Palaeozoic rocks, as compared with that 

 of the Mesozoic and Cainozoic, and that it was only in the very latest 

 of these deposits that remains of man occurred. The President then 

 proceeded to give a resume of his address, and by means of numerous 

 illustrations thrown upon the screen by the Epidiascope, traced the 

 development of the various classes of organic forms, from the earliest 

 and simplest met with, such as the Radiolaria, the Foraminifera, the 

 Sponges, Ccelenterata, Annelids, Starfish, Echinoderms, Mollusca, &c, 



