Ixxvi REPORT — 1855. 



secondary age. But above all, the last few years Lave seen immense progress 

 made in our knowledge of that vast series of deposits which usher in the 

 dawn of existing forms, and carry us on to those changes, which, though the 

 most recent, are not the least obscure of any which have affected the surface 

 of the globe. The investigations of Edward Forbes on the laws which de- 

 termine the conditions of Marine Zoology, have supplied us with data altogether 

 new on some of the highest conclusions of the science ; whilst his profound 

 speculations on the centres of creation and areas of distribution have pointed 

 out paths of inquiry which are themselves of inexhaustible interest, and hold 

 out the promise of great results. Another branch of investigation, which, if 

 not entirely new, is at least pursued on a new system, and with new resources, 

 has been opened up in Dynamical Geology by the learning and ingenuity of 

 Mr. Hopkins ; whilst the thorough elucidation of the conditions of Glacier 

 Motion, which we owe to Professor James Forbes of Edinburgh, has given us 

 clear and definite ideas on one, and that not the least important of the agents 

 in Geological change. The observations accumulated during the recent 

 Arctic voyages have materially added to our knowledge of the operation of 

 the same agency under different conditions — conditions which we know must 

 once have extended widely over the firths and estuaries near where we are now 

 assembled — leaving behind them those enduring records of the Glacial epoch 

 which were first explored by my friend Mr. Smith of Jordan-hill. We owe 

 many important observations on the same phaenomena, and on the various 

 changes of sea-level, to Mr. Robert Chambers. And if the thanks of Science 

 are due to those who advance her interests, both directly by adding to her 

 store of facts, or of her discovered laws ; and also indirectly by investing 

 them with popular interest, and thus enlarging the circle of observers, we 

 must mention with special gratitude the classical works of Mr. Hugh Miller ; 

 and those writings of Sir Charles Lyell, which his indefatigable industry is 

 ever bringing up abreast with the progress of discovery — a progress stimu- 

 lated in no small degree by his own exertions, — and which are alike remark- 

 able for completeness of knowledge, for fertility of suggestion, and for sound 

 philosophical reasoning. I think we cannot mistake the general tendency of 

 Geological research, whether Stratigraphical or Zoological. It has been to 

 prolong periods which had been considered short ; to divide others which 

 were classed together ; to fill up spaces which were imagined blank, and to 

 connect more and more in one unbroken chain the course of physical change 

 and the progress of organic life. 



We pass from geology by a natural transition to another science which 

 stands to it in close alliance. If all our most sure conclusions respecting the 

 superficial covering of the globe have been founded on the classification of 

 its animal remains, it is not less true that our knowledge and understanding 

 of organic structure have been infinitely extended by the means which geo- 

 logy has afforded of studying that structure in relation to its history in past 

 time. In the hands of our great countryman, Professor Owen, Physiology 

 has assumed a new rank in science, leading us up to the very threshold of 

 the deepest mysteries of Nature. If the last few years had been marked by 

 no other event in the advancement of science, there would have been enough 

 to signalise them in the publication of his treatise on the " Homologies of 

 the Vertebrate Skeleton :" and we may recollect with pride the fact of that 

 high argument having been first opened at a Meeting of the British Asso- 

 ciation. 



A sad interest, indeed, attaches, in one direction at least, to the progress 

 of our knowledge in Geography. All serious doubt seems to have closed now 

 over the grave of Franklin. Even in a year during which war has been 



