118 Ehrenberg’s Discoverics—Notices of Eminent Men. 
his researches; and we already see researches of the same kind 
undertaken by others, to such an extent, as to show us that this 
new path of investigation will exercise a powerful influence upon 
the pursuits of geologists. We are sure therefore that we have 
acted in a manner suitable to the wishes of the honored Donor of 
the medal, and to the interests of the science which we all in 
common seek to promote, in assigning the Wollaston medal to 
Prof. Ehrenberg: for these discoveries. 
Although it is not necessary as a ground for this adjudication, 
it is only justice to Prof. Ehrenberg to remark, that his services to 
geology are not confined to the researches which I have men- 
tioned. . His observations, made in the Red Sea, upon the growth 
of corals, are of great value and interest; and he was one of the 
distinguished band of scientific explorers who accompanied Baron 
von Humboldt in his expedition to the Ural Mountains. AndI 
may further add, that even since the Council adjudged this med- 
al, Prof. Ehrenberg has announced to the Royal Academy of Sci- 
ences of Berlin new discoveries ; particularly his observations on 
the organic structure of chalk; on the freshwater Infusoria found 
near Newcastle and Edinburgh, and on the marine animalcules 
observed near Dublin and Gravesend ; and, what cannot but give 
rise to curious reflections, an account of meteoric paper which fell 
from the sky in Courland in 1686, and is found to be composed 
of Conferve and Infusoria. 
I now proceed to notice some of the most conspicuous names, 
both among our own countrymen and foreigners, which have been 
removed by death from our lists since last year. ais4 
In Sir Abraham Hume the Society has lost a member who was 
at all times one of its most strenuous friends and most liberal sup- 
porters, and especially in its earliest periods, when such aid was 
of most value. Indeed he may ina peculiar manner be consid- 
ered as one of the Founders of the Society. English geology, 4° 
is well known, evolved itself out of the cultivation of mineralogy; 
—a study which was in no small degree promoted, at one time; 
by the fame of the mineralogical collections of Sir Abraham 
Hume and others. 'The Count de Bournon, exiled by the French 
revolution in 1790, brought to England new and striking views 
of crystallography, resembling those which Hairy was unfolding 
in France; and was employed to arrange and describe the mine! 
alogical collections of Sir John St. Aubyn and Mr, Greville, and 
