184 Reports and Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



He will warmly appreciate the terms in wMcli the presentation of the Medal has 

 been made, no less than the manner in which the Geological Suciety has endorsed the 

 award of the Council. 



The President then presented the Balance of the Proceeds of the 

 Wollaston Donation Fund to Mr. Leonard James Spencer, M.A., 

 F.Gr.S., of the Mineralogical Department, Natural History Museum, 

 addressing him as follows : — Mr. Spencer, — 



Your researches in Scientific Mineralogy during the last seven years constitute an 

 important and solid contribution to natural knowledge. It is appropriate that the 

 Council of this Society should mark their recognition of your labours by awarding to 

 you the Balance of the Proceeds of the Wollaston Fund, which was instituted to 

 promote researches concerning the mineral structure of the Earth. 



In a series of papers on individual species you have shown yourself to be a master 

 of the methods of crystallographic and mineralogical research, and you have applied 

 these methods with signal success to the investigation of difficult minerals, some of 

 which bad bafiied the efforts of previous Avorkers. 



Special interest attaches to those researches which you have carried out in 

 collaboration with Mr. Prior, to whom this Fund was awarded two years ago, since 

 these have led to the elucidation of species which had previously been misinterpreted, 

 and have proved the identity of several rare minerals which were formerly ranked as 

 different species. The most conspicuous instance is your joint study of Binnite, 

 whereby that mineral, regarded for 45 years as a distinct species, Avas proved to be 

 identical with the well-kuown mineral Tennautite. 



Such researches naturally attract little attention outside the circle of mineralogists, 

 but they are the sort of researches upon which accurate science is based. 



The Council have pleasure in marking their appreciation of your patient and 

 effective labours, by this award, and hope that their recognition of your work will 

 encourage you to proceed with similar investigations. 



In presenting the Murchison Medal to Mr. Frederic William 

 Harmer, F.G.S., the President addressed him in the following 

 words : — Mr. Harmer, — 



The Council of this Society have awarded to you the Murchison Medal, in 

 recognition of your long-continued labours among the Pliocene and later deposits 

 of East Anglia. 



In speaking of your earlier work, it is impossible to separate your name from that 

 of Searles Y. "Wood, jim., Avho, I believe, discovered you on the Cromer coast 

 nearly forty years ago, when you were trying to solve the riddle of its complicated 

 Drifts. Wood, who had previously made a Drift Survey of the whole of Essex on 

 the scale of 1 inch to the mile, soon enlisted your services in Norfolk while he 

 continued his work in Suffolk ; and in the course of about four years you were 

 together able to bring before the British Association at Norwich a summary of the 

 results at which you had arrived from the mapping of the Crag and Glacial Beds. 

 Tour map was published on a reduced scale by the Pala3ontographical Society in 

 1872, with a memoir in which you and Mr. Wood elaborated many points touched 

 upon in your previous work. These original surveys formed an excellent basis for 

 your further researches into the structure and method of formation of these deposits, 

 and for the labours of all who have followed in your footsteps. Freed from the cares 

 of business and of municipal duties, which occupied much of your time in earlier 

 years, your attention has latterly been given to a study of the minuter divisions of the 

 Crag Series, not only in this country, but abroad — in Holland and Belgium : thereby, 

 dealing with the zonal succession in the Crag Series and with the distribution of 

 raolluscan life generally in the Pliocene Period, you have enlarged our knowledge of 

 the physical and climatal conditions under which both Pliocene and Pleistocene 

 deposits were laid down, and have drawn especial attention to the way in which 

 meteorology can aid in the solution of geological problems. 



While it is a matter for regret that Searles V. Wood, jun., did not live to 

 receive from this Society any token of its appreciation of his labours, it is a great 

 satisfaction to place this Medal in the hands of his partner, who has so strenuously 

 carried on the work with which his name Avill always be associated. 



