ORDINARY GENERAL MEETING.* 

 The Rey. F. A. Walker, D.D., F.L.S., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the last Meeting were read and confirmed. 



The following elections were announced : — 



Ltfk Member : — William Arnold He])burn, Esq. 



Members : — Edoar Erat Harrison, Esq. ; Rev. William D. Fanshawe, 

 M.A. ; Dr. John Hall Gladstone, D.Sc, F.E.S. 



Life Associate : — Miss Ella Smith-Bosanquet. 



Associates :— Lieut. -Colonel A. R. W. Sedgefield, M.B. ; The Rt. Rev. 

 Dr. Lefroy, Bishop of Lahore ; The Rev. Arthur H. Ewing, M.A., 

 Ph.D. ; The Rev. Henry Merwyn Tyrwhitt, M.A. ; Herr Frederick 

 Waldemar Lonnbeck, Stockhohn ; Rev. G. E. White, Anatolia 

 College ; Clifford King, Esq. ; .Tames Malcolm Maclaren, Esq., F.G.S. 



The following jjaper, eotitled, " The Preparation of the Earth for Man's 

 Abode," was then read by the author : — 



THE PREPARATION OF THE EARTH FOR 

 MAN'S ABODE. By J. Logan Lobley, F.G.S., 

 F.R.G.S., Professor of Astronomy and Phj'siography, 

 City of London College. 



Introduction. 



A HUNDRED years ago the story of the earth could not 

 have been told. Although the constellations had been 

 devised, the heavens mapped, and the stars numbered and 

 named, although the character and motions of the planets 

 were known and the times of eclipses could be determined, 

 although the globular form of the earth and its movements 

 both of rotation arouad an axis and of revolution round the 

 sun were well established facts, and altliough, moreover, 

 gravitation had been discovered and Newton's Pnnclpia had 

 been written and published, yet the structure of the earth 

 was unknown. A century ago, the character and origin of 

 the ground on which he trod and the formation of the rocks 

 beneath his feet, man did not know, though cosmical 

 theories had been advanced by a few learned men while the 

 more extended knowledge which now enables us to give an 



* Monday, 9th December, 1901. 



