IX. 

 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 



By the President, J. Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., P.R.S., F.L.S., 



Treas. G.S., Etc. 

 Delivered at the Annual Meeting, 17th Fibruary, 1880, at Watford. 



Ladies a;nd Gentlemen, — 



The report of the Council for the past year, wliich has now been 

 read, shows that the Society is in a most flourishing condition, not 

 only as regards the increase of members and the consequent addi- 

 tion to its income, but also in its enlarged publications and the 

 eni'olment of new workers in the field of science, especially in local 

 natural history and meteorology. The extension of the area of 

 observation (which was owing to the suggestion of Mr. Croft and 

 the indefatigable exertions of our Secretary, Mr. Hopkinson), so as 

 to comprise the whole instead of part of the county, mainly caused 

 the great improvement in the number and more active co-operation 

 of members, both of which matters are essential to the prosperity of 

 the Society. But we must take care not to be too ambitious, and 

 (to use a common expression) "come to grief" by going beyond 

 our prescribed limits, or by spending more on our publications than 

 we can prudently afford. On the latter rock some of the leading 

 scientific societies in the kingdom have lately struck and narrowly 

 escaped shipwreck or serious damage. 



I am afraid I may be charged with preaching and not practising, 

 when I take for the subject of this Anniversary Address an over-bold 

 and rather lengthy theme, viz. the hypothesis which is called the 

 doctrine of" Evolution," considered from a geological point of view. 



In approaching this confessedly obscure and very difficult subject, 

 I must premise that I am only a " homo unius libri" and that I am 

 far from being master of that one book — Conchology. Nevertheless, 

 the study of recent and fossil shells, to which I have devoted my 

 leisure during more than half a century, has led me to a conclusion 

 different from that which Mr. Darwin and his followers have 

 advocated and adopted with respect to "The origin of species by 

 means of natural selection." 



Let us see how our best lexicographer. Dr. Johnson, defined the 

 word " evolution." He derived it from the Latin adjective evohitus, 

 and gave five meanings, of which the first is the only one applicable 

 to the present case. It is " the act of unrolling or unfolding," and 



