Lapse of a Royal Medal. — The Apteryx. 159 



Lapse of one of the Royal Medals, for 1837. — As the sub- 

 ject of the classification of fossiliferous rocks, by means of 

 the per-centage test, is brought forward in our present num- 

 ber, it may not be out of place to notice the fact of there 

 having been no paper sent in to the Royal Society, for the 

 medal of last year, (value fifty guineas), and which, as was 

 announced in 1835, was intended to be given to the au- 

 thor of the best essay, entitled, "Contributions towards a 

 system of geological chronology, founded on an examina- 

 tion of fossil remains, and their attendant phenomena." 



In selecting this subject for a prize essay, we conlude 

 that the council had in prospect a more extended applica- 

 tion of Mr. Ly ell's views in the determination of the age 

 of fossiliferous deposits ; for in awarding at that time, one 

 of the Royal medals to this eminent geologist, among other 

 reasons particularly specified, we find, — "The new mode 

 of investigating tertiary deposits, which his labours have 

 greatly contributed to introduce ; namely, that of determin- 

 ing the proportions of extinct and still existing species, with 

 a view to discover the relative ages of distant and unconnect- 

 ed tertiary deposits."* 



The circumstance of no geologist having attempted to carry 

 into more extensive operation, the principle of the per-cent- 

 age test, or to bring forward any other system of geological 

 chronology, founded upon zoological facts, in consequence of 

 which the medal for 1837 has lapsed, looks very like a tacit 

 admission of the force of the objections urged against the em- 

 ployment of the numerical estimates of the conchologist, in 

 determining the relative ages of supra-cretaceous deposits. 



In the last part of Mr. Gould's work on the Australian 

 Birds, we remark an admirably executed representation of the 

 Apteryx, two excellent specimens of which, supposed to be 

 male and female, have lately been presented, by the associa- 

 tion for colonizing New Zealand, to the Museum of the Zoo- 

 logical Society. The Society has also very recently received 

 as a donation from the Earl of Derby, the body of this most 

 extraordinary bird, in a fit state for anatomical investigation; 

 so that the scientific world is likely soon to be in possession 

 of the relations exhibited by its skeleton and soft parts, to 



* Believing, as we do, that incalculable mischief would have arisen to 

 the science of geology, if no check had been given to the introduction 

 of the per-centage test, we gladly take this opportunity of stating our con- 

 viction, that the Royal medal has, in no instance, been hitherto, and we 

 may perhaps even venture to say, never will be again, awarded with more 

 honorable distinction, that when given to the author of the " Principles of 

 Geology." 



Vol. II. — No. 15. n. s. u 



