512 Geological Society: Anniversary Address, 1843. 
he, at the same time, undertook and performed nearly the whole of 
the scientific duties which were formerly discharged in great mea- 
sure by our honorary secretaries ; and this too at a period when 
currents of fresh knowledge were rapidly setting in, and when our 
literary machinery had been rendered much more complex than in 
the early days of our body, through the addition of long and well- 
digested Proceedings, which were chiefly prepared by him. 
‘All these duties were executed with a fidelity and singleness of 
purpose, an ability, and a consummate knowledge of the whole subject 
confided to him, which entitle him to our deepest gratitude, and 
fully justify me in saying that our Transactions, Proceedings, and 
Collections of the last fourteen years are the real monuments of Mr. 
Lonsdale’s labours. Alas! such efforts are more than one man can 
continuously sustain ; and the loss of health which ensued, compelled 
our Curator to sever those ties by which he had been connected 
with us. 
It is not, however, to official duties only that I must now advert ; 
for the various works of Mr. Lonsdale, also published during the 
same period, prove clearly how much science might have received at 
his hands, had they not been bound hy the trammels of official duty. 
His new arrangement of certain strata in the Oolitic series,—his 
important and original suggestion of the existence of an intermediary 
type of Paleozoic fossils, since called Devonian,—and his masterly 
description of the Silurian Corals, are alone sufficient proofs of the 
vigour and accuracy of his researches. Placing in him the most 
entire confidence, and committing to his use, for a season, the 
proceeds of the Wollaston fund, this Society was amply repaid by 
the elaborate survey of a long range of the oolitic escarpments from 
the south-western country, with which he had long been familiar, 
to the Humber—a survey, from which, I venture to say, Sir Henry 
De la Beche will derive the greatest advantage, when he turns his 
attention to these districts, in a large portion of which the boundaries 
of the different oolitic formations were laid down upon the Ordnance 
Map by Mr. Lonsdale. 
The enumeration of all these duties and labours—many of them 
of most difficult execution—still leaves unrecorded, what every work- 
ing Member of this Society must feel, that in the secession of Mr. 
Lonsdale we have also lost our wise and friendly adviser on every 
obscure and difficult point. Who among the active promoters of 
our science has not derived from him willing and devoted assist- 
ance? How often, when balancing difficulties inseparable from our 
subject, have we not benefited by his sound opinions! And with 
what disinterestedness and real kindness were they not offered! 
Where is the memoir in our Transactions, or the separate works 
recently published by our Members, which has not been materially 
improved by his suggestions? In short, I am certain I speak the 
sentiments of all when I say, that, from the moment of his appoint- 
ment to the day of his retirement, Mr. Lonsdale infused a truly gene- 
rous and highly philosophic spirit into every act and every proceed- 
ing with which he was connected. No expression, therefore, of our 
