378 Notes and Comments.’ 
Societies. In the diary of William Allen, Quaker and analytical 
chemist, is the following entry :—‘On the 13th of the eleventh 
month, 1807, dined at the Freemasons’ Tavern, about five 
o'clock, with Davy, Dr. Babington, etc., etc., about eleven in 
all. Instituted a Geological Society.’ On the same date, too, 
Humphry Davy had written to a friend, ‘We are forming a 
little Geological Dining Club, of which I hope you will be a 
member. I shall propose you to-day. 
‘THE FATHER OF ENGLISH GEOLOGY.’ 
Mr. Woodward’s book contains portraits of the leaders of 
geological science. As a frontispiece is a coloured plate of 
William Buckland, with his quaint costume, top hat, gloves, 
umbrella, and green bag. That of John Phillips, at the age of 
sixty, represents him in a waistcoat and trousers of a pattern 
which even geologists would hardly dare to wear to-day. 
Perhaps the most interesting of all is that of William Smith, 
William Smith. 
who over a century ago had outlined the general stratigraphy 
of Britain, and was the first, in this country, to determine the 
succession of strata by means of the fossils they contained. 
Sedgwick, in 1831, conferred upon William Smith the proud 
title of Father of English Geology. 
Naturalist, 
