Reports and Proceedings — Royal Microscopical Society. 375 



In William Smith (1769-1839) we have a man of humble origin, 

 bom at Churchill in Oxfordshire, who, by force of will and industry, 

 trained himself and became a mineral surveyor and geologist of no 

 mean order. He not only mapped out the geology of England and 

 Wales in a most admirable manner, but discovered a great and 

 original principle, which has stood the test of over 100 years of 

 subsequent geological field-work, namely, that the relative age of 

 sedimentary deposits can be determined with certainty by their 

 organised fossil contents. This principle, which he was able to 

 prove to demonstration over wide areas and in hundreds of instances, 

 together with the excellent map which he produced, obtained for 

 him from Sedgwick the title of "Father of English Geology." 

 Had William Smith been as able a writer as he was a brilliant 

 observer in the field and mapper, his name would have been more 

 widely known than it is. One of his geological contemporaries 

 was Samuel Woodward,^ of Norwich (1790-1837). Suffice it to 

 say that with a succession of men like Sedgwick, Conybeare, 

 Buckland, Phillips, Murchison, Lyell, Scrope, Fitton, De la Beche, 

 Griffiths, Portlock, Prestwich, Eamsay, Geikie, geology has pro- 

 gressed enormously in the past 100 years, and is now one of the 

 most popular sciences of the day. 



From the birth of orderly stratigraphical geology has arisen the 

 cognate science of Paleontology, which treats of all fossil remains, 

 and takes note of their succession in the rocks as well as their 

 zoological position among living organisms. 



But since the publication of Darwin's " Origin of Species," now 

 forty years ago, a new and ardent school of zoologists and botanists 

 have entered the field of palseontology, who, whilst they ignore 

 entirely the advantage which the stratigraphical geologist derives 

 from fossils, looked at from the chronological aspect, are never- 

 theless eager to possess themselves of the palasozoological evidence 

 they furnish, which is in fact the key to open the lock of the casket 

 that holds the secret of the origin of species, and even, they believe, 

 of the beginning of life on the earth, a secret they are as eager to 

 learn as that for which our first mother Eve bartered Paradise, or 

 that which excited the curiosity of the Greek Pandora, or the 

 unhappy wives of Bluebeard. 



Although I may not deceive you with promises to disclose the 

 very beginning of life, I may at least be able so far to lift the lid of 

 the casket as to give you a glance at some of the earliest appearances 

 of groups of living organisms, and point out a few which have 

 persisted over vast periods of time, and others which, though of 

 great importance at one time (like some of our celebrated human 

 families), have now entirely disappeai-ed. 



While upon the subject of the evolution and extinction of life- 

 forms I may be permitted to refer you to a very able paper which 

 has lately appeared,^ by Mr. C. B. Crampton, on this subject. 



1 Author of a Avork entitled "Outline of the Geology of Norfolk," 1833, 

 "A Synoptical Table of British Organic Kemains," 1830, and about thirty other 

 memoirs and works. 



2 Proc. Eoy. Pliys. Soc. Edin., vol. xiv, p. 461 ; read March 20th, 1901. 



