270 FOREIGN TRA VEL CHAP, vm 



if the state of his health would allow him to accept it. 

 The President usually confers with former presidents 

 of the Society in regard to his successor before actually 

 proposing a name to the Council ; but on this occasion 

 the President, Leonard Horner, was in Florence, and 

 unable to take any personal part in the negotia- 

 tions. Lyell strongly favoured Ramsay's nomination. 

 Murchison was afraid of the strain upon his colleague, 

 if he accepted the duties of this office in addition to 

 all that he already had to discharge, and urged him 

 to consult his medical adviser. On the 3rd February 

 1862 Ramsay's diary received the following entry: 

 * Sir R. in a great fuss because I had not seen Haden 

 [his doctor]. Drove out to Haden's at one o'clock. 

 He vowed by Jove that he would not stand between 

 me and the presidency. So I drove back and told Sir 

 R., and he said that that settled the matter.' 



So at the Anniversary, on the 2ist February, he 

 was duly elected President an honour well earned by 

 twenty-one years of continuous devotion to geology, 

 and the large part taken by him in the work of the 

 Geological Survey. In the evening he began his 

 duties by presiding at the annual dinner of the Society, 

 where, with the Duke of Argyll on his right, and Lord 

 Ducie on his left, and most of the leaders of geological 

 science around him, he had the satisfaction of seeing 

 a company of nearly ninety assemble to celebrate the 

 foundation of the oldest geological society. Those 

 of that company who still survive will remember the 

 admirable way in which the new President spoke. 

 Never before had he so distinguished himself in the 

 difficult art of post-prandial oratory. In returning 

 thanks for his health he showed a quiet dignity and 

 simplicity, with touches at once of humour and pathos, 



