Geological Society of London. 183 
The Council have this year awarded to you the Murchison Medal, together with 
a.sum of Twenty Guineas, in consideration of the work you have done in the general 
advancement of geological science. They recognize the importance of your work at 
once as a stratigraphical geologist and as a physicist who has devoted his attention 
to problems in connection with the Earth’s crust. It is now nearly forty years since 
your paper on the Purbeck strata of Dorsetshire made its appearance, worked out 
while you had charge of a parish in Dorchester, your connection with this part of 
the world arising from the fact that your father was formerly Vicar of Osmington. 
During the last 30 or 35 years a very great number of works have eminated from 
your pen, and have been published either separately or in the Proceedings of our 
own or of some other Society. 
These works attest the wide range of the subjects in which you have taken an 
interest and the extent of your scientific research. The subjects may be classified 
under four principal heads:—1. Earth sculpture and its results; 2. The discrimina- 
tion of the various superficial deposits collectively spoken of as Drifts; 3. Description 
of the stratigraphy and paleontology of the later Jurassics of Dorsetshire and the 
Older Tertiaries of the Isle of Wight; 4. Investigations into the conditions of the 
Earth’s crust and speculations as to the causes of the great operations which take 
place therein, either observed in action or inferred from their results. 
Whether dealing with denudation in Norfolk, with the Bracklesham Beds on the 
coasts of the Channel, or making use of mathematical analysis to determine what 
must be the resultant form and status of the EKarth on the hypothesis of a certain 
not improbable combination of forces, brought to bear upon certain possible con- 
ditions of the crust, you have given evidence of that philosophic spirit which has 
ever been your characteristic. And we have also seen how suggestive your work has 
been from the large series of similar investigations which have often followed the 
publication of your results. 
The Rev. O. Fisuer, in reply, said: — Mr. President,— 
I regard the award of this Medal to me as to some extent a token that my efforts 
to find a modus vivendi between geologists and physicists have been appreciated by the 
Geological Society. I regret to say that the leading physicists, at least in this 
country, make no sign at present either of accepting or of rejecting my conclusions ; 
but the important questions at issue seem on the point of receiving recognition 
from American mathematicians. 
lt is with peculiar pleasure that I shall treasure the Murchison Medal. I had the 
honour many years ago of a slight acquaintance with the distinguished Founder of 
this endowment, and [ recollect still, how, at the reading of the first paper which I 
offered to this Society, Sir Roderick expressed approbation of my views, which were 
somewhat opposed to the strictly uniformitarian theories then chiefly in vogue. 
Words of encouragement falling from so great a man could not fail to be valuable to 
an amateur at his first venture before a learned Society; and that the same Society 
should after many years endorse in so appropriate a manner the favourable opinion 
which he expressed of my early effort affords me the greatest satisfaction. 
In presenting the Lyell Medal to Mr. E. Tulley Newton, F.G.S., 
the PresipEnt addressed him as follows:—Mr. Newton,— 
The Council have awarded to you the Lyell Medal, with a sum of Twenty-five 
Pounds, in recognition of the valuable services you have rendered to British 
Paleontology. In addition to your well-known memoirs, ‘“‘On the Chimeroid 
Fishes of the Cretaceous rocks,’’ and ‘‘ On the Vertebrata of the Forest-bed Series,’’ 
published by the Geological Survey, you continue to contribute important papers to 
the Royal, Geological, and Zoological Societies, to the GEoLocican Macazine, and 
to the Geologists’ Association. Nor must we forget the very valuable synopsis of 
the Animal Kingdom brought out by you in 1887. 
Your knowledge of the fossil Mollusca has been made available by way of joint 
contribution to more than one paper, while you have further increased our knowledge 
of the Vertebrata of the British Isles in almost every class. The fishes have always 
coustituted one of your favourite subjects, and lately you have brought to notice a 
new species of Clupea from the Oligocene of the Isle of Wight, and a form of 
Semionotus from the Keuper of Warwick, besides contributing to the history of 
‘Eocene Siluroids. Your recent papers in the ‘‘ Proceedings’’ of the Royal Society 
