138 Geological Society. 



captured in the nets employed for fishing. His observations are 

 principally directed to the anatomical characters which distinguish 

 the marine from the terrestrial serpents, and to the modifications of 

 structure by which the former are adapted to the element in which 

 they exist. With respect to their physiology, the principal point of 

 interest he establishes is, the circumstance of all the species, with- 

 out exception, being highly venomous, a fact which has been denied 

 by Schlegel, who states that the Marine Snakes are harmless ; and 

 the same erroneous idea is very current with the natives. Dr. Cantor 

 in proof of the contrary refers to the recent death of an officer in 

 Her Majesty's service, within an hour or two after the bite of a Serpent 

 which had been caught at sea, and also to numerous experiments 

 of his own, in which fowls, fish, and other animals invariably died 

 within a few minutes after the bite had been inflicted. Numerous 

 sketches were exhibited to the Meeting in illustration of Dr. Cantor's 

 observations. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Award of the Wollaston Medal to Dr. Ehrenherg of Berlin ; — Ex- 

 tracted from the President's Address. 



The Council have adjudged the Wollaston medal for the present 

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

 fusoria and other microscopic objects contained in the materials of 

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

 nearly three 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 

 Ehrenberg, 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 with 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 Infusoria which have 

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

 still exist in the waters : and thus these for.ms of life, so long over- 

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

 durability through tiie revolutions of the earth's surface which 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 



