186 Reports & Proceedings — Geological Society of London. 



The President thereafter proceeded to read his Anniversary- 

 Address, giving obituary notices of Eduard Suess (elected a Foreign 

 Member in 1877), and of the following Fellows : A. J. Jukes- 

 Browne (el. in 1874), the Rev. Osmond Fisher (el. 1852), William 

 "Hill (el. 1885), H. J. Johnston-Lavis (el. 1875), F. W. Eudler 

 (el. 1870), the Rev. J. M. Mello (el. 1865), W. Cash (el. 1873), 

 A. R. Hunt (el. 1870), W. E. Darwin (el. 1881), L. Y. Dalton 

 (el. 1908), E. D. E. Isaacson (el. 1908), Baron Merthyr (el. 1867), 

 and T. Stephens (el. 1873). He also referred to the death of 

 Sir John Murray, K.C.B. 



The President remarked that the progress of Geology depends on 

 so many lines of research, that each specialist does well at times 

 to pause and consider the relation of his own small part to the whole. 

 He therefore reviewed some results of his study of fossil fishes in 

 their bearing on stratigraphy. However necessary detailed lists of 

 species of fossils might be for comparative work with sediments 

 in restricted areas, he hoped to show that in dealing with broader 

 questions names were really of small importance. Certain general 

 principles had been arrived at, which would serve for all practical 

 purposes. Each successive great group of fishes began with free- 

 swimming fusiform animals, of which some passed quickly into 

 slow-moving or grovelling types, while others changed more 

 gradually into elongated or eel-shaped types. There was also 

 a constant tendency for the primitive symmetry of the parts of the 

 skeleton in successive members of a group to become marred by 

 various more or less irregular fusions, subdivisions, and suppressions. 

 Some of the successive species of each group increased in size, until 

 the maximum was reached just before the time for extinction. These 

 and many other more special inevitable changes had now been traced 

 in most groups, and the various geological dates at which they 

 occurred had been determined by observations on fossil fishes from 

 many parts of the world. Even fragments of fish-skeletons, too 

 imperfect to be named, were often therefore of value for strati- 

 graphical purposes. 



The Ballot for the Officers and Council was taken, and the following were 

 declared duly elected for the ensuing year : — 



Officers. — President: Arthur Smith Woodward, LL.D., F.E.S. Vice- 

 Presidents: Henry Howe Bemrose, J. P., Sc.D. ; Clement Beid, F.E.S. , 

 F.L.S. ; Aubrey Strahan, Sc.D., LL.D., F.E.S. ; and the Eev. Henry Hoyte 

 Win wood, M. A. Secretaries: Herbert Henry Thomas, M.A., Sc.D.; and 

 Herbert Lapworth, D.Sc, M.Inst.C.E. Foreign Secretary: Sir Archibald 

 Geikie, O.M., K.C.B., D.C.L., LL.D., Sc.D., F.E.S. Treasurer: Bedford 

 McNeill, Assoc. E.S.M. 



The other Members of Council elected were : Professor Charles Gilbert 

 Cullis, D.Sc. ; E. Mountford Deeley, M.Inst.C.E. ; John William Evans, 

 D.Sc, LL.B. ; Professor William George Fearnsides, M.A. ; Walcot Gibson, 

 D.Sc. ; Sir Thomas Henry Holland, K.C.I.E., D.Sc, F.E.S. ; Professor Owen 

 Thomas Jones, M.A.,' D.Sc. ; Finlay Lorimer Kitchin, M.A., Ph.D.; John 

 Edward Marr, M.A., Sc.D., F.E.S. ; Edwin Tulley Newton, F.E.S. ; Eobert 

 Heron Eastall, M.A. ; Professor William Johnson Sollas, M.A., Sc.D., LL.D., 

 F.E.S. ; J. J. Harris Teall, M.A., D.Sc, LL.D., F.E.S. ; William Whitaker, 

 B.A., F.E.S. 



