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a notion has been rather encouraged that some new light had suddenly 
dawned upon the Committee with reference to Geology, and to 
_systematic arrangement. Now, with the exception of Mr. Crane and 
Mr. Shillingford, who had been admirable as workers, every member 
of the new Geological Committee had been for years a member of the 
old; and to show that the old Committee fully recognised the 
desirability of the state of things which, with more suitable rooms, they 
had now in some measure carried out, he might be permitted to quote 
the following sentence from a communication which he had made to _ 
the Brighton papers so long ago as 1867 :—“ In the Geological Section, 
when the various sub-divisions of the different formations, with the 
characteristic fossils of each are exhibited and marked ; especially 
when so arranged as to show ata glance an epitome of the entire 
series of fossiliferous rocks, in a descending order, from the present 
surface of the globe, and passing downwards through the Tertiary, 
Secondary, and Primary deposits to the Igneous rocks, the advantages 
to the student cannot be exaggerated of enabling him to pursue his 
studies in the Museum itself, so as to acquaint himself with the nature, 
order, and design of strata representing the whole range of Geological 
History.” To say nothing of the acknowledged practical advantages of 
this study, it had long been unnecessary to apologise for the high place 
claimed for Geology among the Sciences, for as an eminent writer had 
said, “It is, indeed, not so much one science, as the application of 
all the physical sciences to the examination and description of the 
structure of the.earth, the investigation of the agencies concerned in 
the production of that structure, and the history of their action.” 
Another Geological chieftain, Sir Charles Lyell, said, *‘ Geology is 
the science which investigates the successive changes which have taken 
place in the organic and inorganic kingdoms of Nature. It inquires 
into the causes of these changes, and the influence which they have 
exerted in modifying the surface and external structure of our planet.” 
That is, they had to give the means of studying not only the animal 
and vegetable contents of the rocks by means of Palzeontology—the 
study of ancient life—but also the succession and causes of phenomena 
which, since the origin of our globe had brought about such mighty 
changes, and which, in greater or less degree of activity, were still in 
operation, They had, in short, so to open and expound the great book 
of the rocks, as to show the workings of the Almighty hand and the 
all-wise operations of the Divine will since the period, far back in the 
