TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 605 



Section C— GEOLOGY. 

 President of the Section — Andrew Ceombie Kamsay, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBEB 1. 

 The President delivered the foUowinof Address : — 



^rs 



On the Origin mid Progress of the present state of British Geology, especially 

 since the first meeting of the British Association at Yorh in 1831. 



In the year 1788, Hutton published his first sketch of his ' Theory of the Earth,' 

 afterwards extended and explained by Playfair in a manner more popular and per- 

 spicuous than is done in Hutton's own writings. In this grand work, Hutton 

 clearly explains that the oldest known strata, like their successors, are derivative, 

 and that as far as observation can discover, in all geological time, ' we find no 

 vestige of a beginning, and no sign of an end." The complement to this fav-seeing 

 observation was at length brought about by William Smith, in his original ' Geo- 

 logical Map of the Strata of England and Wales' in 1815, followed, in 1816, by 

 his ' Strata Identified by Organised Fossils.' This great discovery, for such it was, 

 threw a new light on the history of the earth, proving what had before been xm- 

 known, that all the ' secondary ' formations at least from the lias to the chalk 

 inclusive, contained each a set of distinctive fossils by which it could be recognised. 

 A law was thus provided for the identification of formations which geographically 

 are often widely separated from each other, not only in England in the case of 

 minor outliers, but also easily applicable to great areas on the neighbourino- con- 

 tinent of Europe. 



In 1811, the first volume of the ' Transactions ' of the Geological Society was 

 published, and in 1826-27, there appeared the first volume of the ' Proceedings,' 

 the object being to communicate to the fellows as promptly as possible the pro- 

 ceedings of the Society ' during the intervals between the appearance of the 

 several parts of the Transactions.' The last volume of the 'Transactions ' contains 

 memoirs read between the years 1845-1856, and only four volumes of the ' Pro- 

 ceedings ' appeared between the years 1826 and 1845 inclusive, after which the 

 title of the annual volume was changed to that of the ' Quarterly Journal of the 

 Geological Society.' The Geological Society, to whicli the science owes so much, 

 was therefore in full action when the British Association was founded in 1831 

 and the memoirs read before the society from 1831 to this date, may be said to 

 show generally the state of British geology during the last fifty years. To this 

 must be added the powerful influence of the first (1830) and later editions of Lyell's 

 ' Principles of Geology,' a work which helped to lay the foundations of those re- 

 searches in Physical Geology which in both earlier and later years have attracted 

 so much attention. 



Fifty years ago in this city. Viscount Milton was president of the first meeting 

 of ' The British Association for the advancement of Science,' which he explained 

 had for its chief object ' to give a stronger impulse and more systematic direction 

 to scientific inquiry.' In his address, he pointed out the numbers of Philosophical 

 Societies which had by degrees sprung up in all parts of the kingdom ; and the 

 practicability, through the means of the Association, ' including all the scientific 

 strength of Great Britain,' 'to point out the lines in which the direction of 

 science should move.' 



In that year, 1831, Professor Sedgwick was president of the Geological Society, 

 and the Geological and Geographical Committee of the British Association re- 



