r 77 ] 



well-merited. Asking pardon for digressing from the sabject 

 befoi'e them, he broached a tender matter by expressing how deeply 

 he regretted that, for a time, Mr Davidson's services had been lost 

 to the Museum). He, howevci', hoped that Brighton would still be 

 favoured with the services of a gentleman whose name was known 

 wherever the name of geology or science itself was recognised. The 

 motion was unanimously carried. 



The deep regret experienced at the loss of Mr Davidson's 

 services to the Museum was about to be further commented upon 

 by Mr Alderman Mayall, but the Chairman intei-posed by remarking 

 that he thought they had better not go into that subject, although 

 he had been allowed to revert to it. Mr Alderman Mayall then 

 paid a tribute to the great care with which Mr. Davidson had 

 investigated science, and asked that gentleman whether, in any of 

 the dredging expeditions, extinct genera had been re-discovered. 



Mr. Davidson replied that he had had several letters from 

 the Challenger Expedition, and had seen all the forms discovered 

 in the course of the other expeditions — he, in fact, had been asked 

 to describe the Brachiopoda obtained by the Challenger Expedition, 

 having done so for various expeditions — and not a single extinct 

 form had been found. In reply to the Chairman, Mr Davidson 

 further stated that he had 40,000 specimens, from every part of the 

 world, and fully four-fifths of the known species. 



Mr. WONFOE observed that the geologic story as told by the 

 Brachiopoda did not bear out the theory of evolution. Besides the 

 fact that when the genns disappeared it never reappeared, one could 

 hardly imagine that Tretenferata with a mouth and anal opening 

 degenerated into the Clistenterata with a mouth but no anal 

 opening. In the latter, one aperture had to perform the double 

 office of mouth and anus, and in the former these functions 

 were performed by two apertures — iin evidently higher type than 

 the other. 



Mr Haselwood reminded the meeting that this theory of 

 evolution was only a working hypothesis, and one of the best which 

 they had. He also took this opportunity of remarking that they 

 could not over-estimate the value of such a gentleman as Mr. 

 Davidson. If the world was to progress, it was by such devotion 



