Anniversary of 1839. Address o/the President. 379 



has announced to the Royal Academy of Sciences 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 i'ell from the sky in Courland in 

 1686, and was found to be composed of Confervse 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. 



In Sir Abraham Hume the Society has lost a member who was at 

 all times one of its most strenuous friends and most liberal supporters, 

 and especially in its earliest periods, when such aid was of most 

 value. Indeed he may in a peculiar manner be considered as one 

 of the Founders of the Society. English geology, as 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 Hauy was unfolding in France ; and was employed to 

 arrange and describe the mineralogical collections of Sir John St. 

 Aubyn and Mr. Greville, and especially the collection of diamonds 

 of Sir Abraham Hume, of which a description, illustrated with 

 plates, was published in 1816. Some years before this period a few 

 lovers of mineralogy met at stated times at the house of Dr. Babing- 

 ton, whose influence in preparing the way for the formation of this 

 Society was mentioned with just acknowledgement in the Pre- 

 sident's Address, in 1834, by Mr. Greenough ; and certainly he, 

 more fitly perhaps than any other person, could speak of the merits 

 and services of his fellow-labourers. Of the number of these Sir 

 Abraham Hume was one ; although not, I believe, one of those who 

 showed their zeal for the pursuits which associated them by holding 

 their meetings at the hour of seven in the morning, the only time of 

 the day which Dr. Babington's professional engagements allowed 

 him to devote to social enjoyments of this nature. 



Out of the meetings to which I refer this Society more imme- 

 diately sprung. The connection of mineralogy with geology is 

 somewhat of the nature of that of the nurse with the healthy child 

 born to rank and fortune. The foster-mother, without being even 

 connected by any close natural relationship witli her charge, sup- 

 plies it nutriment in its earliest years, and supports it in its first 

 infantine steps ; but is destined, it may be, to be afterwards left in 

 comparative obscurity by the growth and progress of her vigorous 

 nursling. Yet though geology now seeks more various and savoury 

 food from other quarters, she can never cease to look back with 

 regard and gratitude to the lap in which she first sat, and the hands 

 that supplied her early wants. And our warm acknowledgments 

 must on all due occasions be paid to those who zealously cultivated 

 mineralogy, when geology, as we now understand the term, hardly 

 existed; and who, when the nobler and more expansive science 



