Geological Society of London. 183 



Mr. Smith Woodward, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — 



I desire to express my thanks to the Council of the Geological Society for the 

 great honour that they have done me in making this award, and to yourself, sir, for 

 the very kind and complimentary terms in which you have presented the medal. 

 During the last thirteen years I have merely tried to make the best use of the 

 opportunities for research afforded by my official connection with the British Museum ; 

 and the great gratification experienced in the pursuit of duty of this kind is in itself 

 so ample a reward for the labour involved, that a naturalist thus circumstanced 

 scarcely looks for anything beyond it. When, however, the honourable marks of 

 approbation officially bestowed are unexpectedly coupled with so highly esteemed 

 a distinction as the award of the Lyell Medal by the Geological Society of London, 

 I feel doubly encouraged to persevere and endeavour to merit the compliments that 

 have been expressed. 



I was first led to take a special interest in extinct Fishes by attending Dr. 

 Traquair's course of Swiney Lectures on the subject in 1883. I was thus enabled 

 to apply to this field of research the methods that I bad previously learned from 

 Prof. Boyd Dawkins when a student in the Owens College. Since that time the 

 kindly encouragement of so many friends — yourself and the late Mr. William Davies 

 among the foremost — has made progress easy ; and the very fortunate circumstance 

 that most of the larger private collections of Fossil Fishes in this country have now 

 been acquired by the British Museum, has afforded me favourable opportunities 

 for study such as never have been enjoyed by anyone previously. The biological 

 problems suggested by these fossils seem to me to outweigh in interest the geological 

 questions connected with them to so great a degree, that 1 have rarely been able to 

 look upon them from any but a morphologist's point of view ; and all the more 

 on this account do I appreciate the high honour that is conferred upon me by the 

 Geological Society to-day. 



The President then presented one-half of the balance of the 

 proceeds of the Lyell Geological Fund to Dr. William Fraser 

 Hume, Assoc.R.S.M. and R.Coll.Sci., F.G.S., and addressed him as 

 follows : — Dr. Hume, — 



Although for several years you have been actively engaged as a Demonstrator in 

 Geology in the Royal College of Science, you have not allowed any opportunities 

 for doing original work in the field to escape you ; and your essay on the Chemical 

 and Micro-mineralogical Structure of the several zones of the Upper Cretaceous 

 rocks of the South of England illustrates admirably how such detailed work should 

 best be carried out. 



Your papers on the "Black-earth," "the Loess," and on the Chalk of Russia, 

 "on the Genesis of the Chalk," and on "Oceanic Deposits," indicate the bent 

 of your researches towards the microscopic investigation of rocks — a line of study 

 which Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S., a past President of this Society, so profitably 

 engaged in. 



The Council hope, by the presentation of this award, not only to mark their 

 appreciation of your past researches, but to encourage you to extend them to other 

 formations with the same useful results. 



Dr. Hume replied as follows : — Mr. President, — 



At times a feeling of despondency has crossed my mind, when I have considered 

 the vastness of our subject, and the smallness of the contributions which I have 

 endeavoured to add to our knowledge of the past ; it is therefore a great encourage- 

 ment to receive this mark of approval from those whose opinion we most value and 

 esteem. It would, indeed, have been strange if, with the resources of the Royal 

 College of Science at my disposal, I had not availed myself to the utmost of such 

 exceptional opportunities. 



Two facts afford me special gratification on the present occasion : the first, that 

 this award should be intimately connected with the great geologist whose historical 

 and geographical methods I have been most anxious to follow to the best of my 

 ability ; the second, to receive it from you, seeing that you were the editor who 

 piloted with friendly hand my first publication, at a time when it was especially 

 in your power to damp or re-inspire the ardour of a young enthusiast. Therefore 



