Atmivenaiy of 1839. Address of the. President. 377 



tute of many of them, especially of the more modern works, to an 

 extent which we should hardly any of us find tolerable in our 

 private libraries. This deficiency interferes materially with the 

 utility of the Society, and is indeed inconsistent with its character. 

 We shall, I trust, all agree that it is a state of things we ought to 

 remedy. At no period of the history of this body has there been 

 found wanting, when the occasion demanded it, a liberal and gene- 

 rous spirit among its members ; and I am fully persuaded that at 

 the present day the love of the Society has not waxed cold among 

 the Fellows, nor have their purse-strings become rigid. It has ap- 

 peared to me, that when a definite list of our deficiencies is laid 

 before you, it will not be found difficult for each person to find in 

 such a list some article, book or map, which it will gratify him that 

 the Society should possess as his gift. In this or in some other 

 way I do not doubt that we shall be able to bring up the condition 

 of our Library to that which the time and our position require. 



The Council have adjudged the Wollaston medal for the present 

 year to Professor Ehrenberg, lor his discoveries respecting fossil In- 

 fusoria and other microscopic objects contained in the materials of 

 the earth's strata. We all I'ccollect the astonishment with which, 

 nearly thi-ee years ago, we received the assertion, that large masses 

 of rock, and even whole strata, are composed of the remains of mi- 

 croscopic animals. This assertion, made at that time by Professor 

 Ehrenljerg, has now not only been fully confirmed and very greatly 

 extended by him, but it has assumed the character of one of the 

 most important and striking geological truths which have been 

 brought to light in our time : for the connection of the present 

 state of the earth wiih its condition at former periods of its history, 

 a problem now always present to the mind of the philosophical 

 geologist, receives new and unexpected illustration from these re- 

 searches. Of about eighty species of fossil Infusoi-ia which have 

 been discovered in various strata, almost the half are species which 

 still exist in tiie waters : and thus these ibrnis of life, so long over- 

 looked as invisible specks of brute matter, have a constancy and 

 durability through the revolutions of the earth's surface Mhich is 

 denied to animals of a more conspicuous size and organization. 

 Again, we are so accustomed to receive new confirmations of our 

 well-established geological doctrines, that the occurrence of such an 

 event ])roduces in us little surprise; but if this were not so, we could 

 not avoid being struck with one feature of Prof. Ehrenberg's dis- 

 coveries ; — tliat, while the microscopic contents of the more recent 

 strata are all i'reshwater Infusoria, those of the ciudk are bodies 

 (Pvridiuiuni, XuiUliidimn, Fucoides,) whicii must, or at least can, 

 live in the waters of the ocean. Nor has Prof. Ehrenberg been con- 

 t(;nt with examining the rocks in which these objects occur. During 

 the last two years lie has been pursuing a idgidy interesting series 

 of researclies witii tiie view of ascertaining in wiiat manner tiiese 

 vast masses of minute animals can have been accumulated. And 

 tlie result of liis inquiries is*, that these creatures exist at present in 



* Abhaudl. Kon. Ak. Wisscnsch. Berlin. 1838. 



