XL 

 GEOLOGICAL REFORM. 



&quot; A great reform in geological speculation seems now to have become 

 necessary.&quot; 



** It is quite certain that a great mistake has been made, that British 

 popular geology at the present time is in direct opposition to the principles 

 of Natural Philosophy/ l 



IN reviewing the course of geological thought during the past 

 year, for the purpose of discovering those matters to which I 

 might most fitly direct your attention in the Address which it 

 now becomes my duty to deliver from the Presidential Chair, the 

 two somewhat alarming sentences which I have just read, and 

 which occur in an able and interesting essay by an eminent 

 natural philosopher, rose into such prominence before my mind 

 that they eclipsed everything else. 



It surely is a matter of paramount importance for the British 

 geologists (some of them very popular geologists too) here in 

 solemn annual session assembled, to inquire whether the severe 

 judgment thus passed upon the^m by so high an authority as Sir 

 William Thomson is one to which they must plead guilty sans 

 phrase, or whether they are prepared to say &quot; not guilty,&quot; and 

 appeal for a reversal of the sentence to that higher court of 

 educated scientific opinion to which we are all amenable. 



1 On Geological Time. By Sir W. Thomson, LL.D. Transactions of 

 the Geological Society of Glasgow, vol. iii. 



