50 Eminent Living Geologists — 



bent of his mind, as reflected in his writings, was dwelt upon by 

 MM. Perrier, Boule, and Liard, the speakers on that occasion.^ 



Applause is too often readily bestowed upon speculative work, 

 which deserves no higher praise than that of being happily con- 

 ceived ; at the time no one enquires whether there is any solid basis 

 for the speculation, and the writer is often thoroughly satisfied with 

 his temporary success. It is different with Gaudry. The real and 

 lasting merit of his work is due to the fact that his generalizations 

 are based upon painstaking and accurate analytical research ; analysis 

 and synthesis are happily blended, and his generalizations are the 

 outcome of careful analytical investigation. This is not only true 

 of his descriptive publications (" Animaux fossiles et Geologie de 

 I'Attique"; "Animaux fossiles du Mont Leberon"), but also of those 

 which are professedly of a more philosophical nature, and among 

 the latter his " Enchainements " certainly takes the first place. In 

 this work the generalizations are not merely based on previously 

 known data, but upon numberless original observations made known 

 for the first time in that volume. 



It should also be borne in mind that from his eai'liest writings 

 Professor Gaudry, like his illustrious contemporary, Professor 

 Eiitimeyer, of Basel University, Switzerland, based his teaching on 

 the theory of evolution, a fact which made his work, as Boule reminds 

 us, an act of independence and courage which few men of science 

 on the Continent were prepared to follow in those early days of 

 Darwin's writings. 



Professor Gaudry's separate contributions to palaeozoology in 

 various scientific journals numbered 85 up to 1883, hut many others 

 have appeared during the past 20 years. Among those of later 

 years we may mention two of special importance, namely, his 

 memoir on Actinodon Frossardi, Gaudry, discovered by M. Bayle 

 in the Lower Permian, Autun, Saone et Loire, France (Nouvelle 

 Archives du Museum, ser. ii, vol. x, 1887, pp. 9-19, pi. i) ; and 

 his account of the discovery and reconstruction of the entire skeleton 

 of ElepTias meridionalis, F. Nesti, in the Volume Commemoratif 

 Centenaire de la Fondation du Musee d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris 

 (4to, 1893, pp. 327-348, with plate). 



Professor Gaudry was elected a Foreign Correspondent of the 

 Geological Society of London in 1868, and a Foreign Member in 

 1874 ; and at the annual general meeting on February 15th, 1884, 

 the President, Mr. J. W. Hulke, F.E.S., in presenting him with 

 the Wollaston Gold Medal, the highest honour the Society is 

 able to confer, addressed him as follows : — " Professor Gaudry, the 

 Council of the Geological Society has awarded you the Wollaston 

 Medal in recognition of the value of your paleeontological 

 researches and the important scientific generalizations you have 

 deduced from long and laborious observations. The numerous 

 papers on topographical geology and on palseontology you 

 have contributed during the past 30 years, your important 

 ' Recherches Scientifiques en Orient entreprises par les ordres du 

 1 " Jubile de ]\r. Albeit Gaudry " (Paris, par le Comite, 1902). 



