Geological Society of London. 179 



of calcareous and infusorial siliceous rocks, he anticipated many recent discoveries, 

 both as to the part played by minute calcareous and siliceous organisms in rock-forma- 

 tion, and also as to the chemical and physical changes to which such organisms are 

 subject during the conversion of soft deposits into hard stone. 



In asking you to transmit this Medal to Professor Williamson, may I further beg 

 that you will convey to him an expression of our wishes that he may continue his 

 important studies for many years to come, and of our regret that his engagements 

 have unadvoidably prevented our having the pleasure of his presence on this occasion. 



Prof. Judd, in reply, read the following communication received by him from Prof. 

 Williamson: —"I need scarcely say that I feel grateful for the honour done me in 

 awarding me the Wollaston Medal ; and I trust you will not deem me presumptuous 

 when I express a hope that it has been won by conscientious work. Though the 

 rich deposits of fossil plants discovered in the neighbourhood of Scarborough — my 

 native town — drew my attention to paiaeobntany at an early age, it was only in 1851 

 that I commenced the study of their internal organization. I was led to this by a 

 specimen for which I was indebted to our distinguished colleague Professor Prestwich, 

 and which enabled me to interpret the anomalous objects known as Stembergia. 

 The success attending this exploration whetted the appetite ; and from that time 

 until now the organization of the Carboniferous plants has received my continuous 

 attention. The difficulties impeding my work, which have been considerable, have 

 chiefly arisen from one cause. Most of the Carboniferous plants belong to the 

 Crvptogamic division of the Vegetable Kingdom, the only exceptions being some 

 ancestral forms of the modern Cycads and Conifers. At the present day these 

 Cryptogams are mainly low herbaceous plants. But forests and forest-trees were 

 wanted iu that primaeval age, which want seems to have been inadequately supplied 

 by the Gymnosperms just referred to. The want was met by uplifting the now lowly 

 Cryptogams into Forest giants, and since the stems of these required some organiza- 

 tion additional to that which living Cryptogams possess, to enable them to sustain 

 their superstructures, they were strengthened fur their work by the same exogenous 

 growth as effects that eud among modern forest trees. But that any Cryptogams 

 should attain so high an organization was deemed by most botanists so improbable 

 that their almost universal voice rejected my views upon the subject. But the 

 truth has prevailed, and, happily for myself, I have been spared long enough to 

 witness this end of my labours." 



In conclusion, Prof. Williamson expressed his great indebtedness to Messrs. Cash, 

 Aitkin, Butterworth, Nield, Earnshaw, Whitaker, Spencer, Binns, Wild, and 

 Lomax, who have collected the valuable materials employed by him in his researches. 



In presenting the Murcliison Medal to Prof. E. Hull, F.R.S., the 

 President addressed him as follows : — 



Professor Hull, — In handing to you, who were one of Sir R. Murchison's 

 colleagues on the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland, the Medal founded 

 by him, I shall not attempt to enumerate the many additions that you have made to 

 our knowledge of the geology of the British Islands and to geological literature. 

 Your contributions to the memoirs published by the Survey on various parts of 

 England, and especially on parts of Gloucestershire. Oxfordshire, Cumberland, 

 Cheshire, and Lancashire, are too well known to need recapitulation ; and you have 

 done good service to the cause of science by your treatment of one of the principal 

 geological and economical problems presented to the Survey in your ' Coal-fields of 

 Great Britain,' a work that has deservedly passed through several editions. You 

 have aided greatly in the important series of investigations into the underground 

 distribution of the productive Coal-measures when concealed by later unconformable 

 deposits, and you have applied your extensive field-experience of British rocks to 

 solve the difficult question of land-distribution in past epochs, and to the elucidation 

 of the physical geography of the British Islands. For several years past, whilst 

 holding your present post at the head of the Irish Survey, you have contributed in 

 very many different parts of the country, and by the investigation of many distinct 

 rock-formations, to our knowledge of Irish geology, and by your visit to Palestine 

 you have been able to throw much light on the geological structure of the Holy Land. 



Prof Hull, in reply, said:— I appreciate very highly the honour which you and 

 the Council have conferred in awarding to me the Murchison Medal. The gratifica- 

 tion I feel is enhanced by the circumstance that this distinction is associated with 

 the name and memory of the founder, who was to me a wise and considerate chief as 

 well as a personal friend. 



