Geological Society of London. 183 



the Carboniferous Arachnids and their allies have justly excited very great interest. 

 To aid you in the prosecution of such studies the Proceeds of the Wollaston 

 Donation Fund have been awarded to you, and I feel sure that one circumstance 

 in connexion with this Fund will make the award specially welcome to you. In 

 the roll of names of those who have in previous years received this distinction, 

 will be found one, honoured alike by you and by us, that of your lamented father, 

 Mr. Charles Peach. 



Mr. Peach, in reply, said: — Mr. President, — I desire to record my cordial 

 thanks for the honour now conferred upon me. The pleasure derived from the 

 pursuit of the researches indicated by you has more than compensated for my 

 labour. It is, however, an additional gratification to me to know that my 

 investigations have been deemed worthy of recognition by the Council of this 

 Society. 



The President next presented the Murcliison Medal to the Eev. 

 P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S., and addressed him as follows: — 



Mr. Brodie, — Never probably has an award of this Society been made to one 

 who can look back upon so long a record of faithful services to Geology as yourself. 

 It is now 54 years ago since you became a Member of this Society, at a time when 

 the Founder of the Medal which has now been awarded to you occupied the 

 Presidential Chair. At the date of your election the ' Principles of Geology ' had 

 but just appeared, while Sedgwick and Murchison had not even commenced their 

 researches among the Palaeozoic rocks of Western Britain. A pupil of the great 

 Cambridge professor and infected with his enthusiasm, you soon began to contribute 

 to various scientific journals, our own among the number, and in 1845 your 

 valuable ' History of Fossil Insects ' — the first treatise of the kind published in any 

 language — made its appearance. A dweller in the provinces, you have shown how 

 the advancement of our Science may best be promoted under those conditions ; 

 and in the field-clubs and local societies which have done so much for the study of 

 geology in the West of England, where your home lay, you have long been a 

 prominent and very active worker. Your published papers on a variety of subjects 

 amount to more than 50, and only last year we were glad to welcome a fresh con- 

 tribution from your pen, and to hear your clear exposition of it, as you stood before 

 us with eye undimmed and with natural force unabated. The Council of this 

 Society have adjudged you to be a worthy recipient of the Medal founded by their 

 President of 1833. 



Mr. Brodie, in reply, said : — Mr. President,— I receive, Sir, this mark of the 

 approbation of the Council with very great pleasure and grateful thanks ; and it 

 was more gratifying because it took me quite by surprise. After searching the 

 rocks for more than half a century, and having been a Fellow of this Society for 

 53 years, it might be expected that I should have done more to enlarge our 

 knowledge of geology ; but of course my time was not entirely at my own disposal 

 in this respect, and I could therefore only study Natural Science in the closet and 

 the field during hours of leisure. As a proof that I have not been altogether idle, 

 I have made during that time a large collection of fossils, numbering twenty-three 

 thousand specimens, numbered and arranged, more or less illustrating every 

 formation in the British Isles. But of course a mere collection of fossils, though 

 having a certain value, is of little worth without an accurate knowledge of the 

 rocks and their organic contents. 



The award of the Murchison Medal is especially agreeable to me because I have 

 had many pleasant and instructive days in the field with that distinguished geologist ; 

 but I do not forget that at Cambridge I was a pupil of the illustrious Sedgwick, to 

 whom I owe a lasting debt of gratitude for the kind help and encouragement which 

 that great and good professor was ever ready to give to any student anxious to learn. 

 In after years, I can with pardonable pride speak of him as my friend. When I 

 made some of my earlier discoveries of fossil insects and other organisms in the 

 Wealden Purbecks in the Vale of Wardour, I received a letter from him in which 

 he said, "you have made a good hit, go on and prosper," and this medal shows 

 that I have 50 far done so. It is now more than half a century since I was 

 admitted a Fellow of this Society, just before I went to college, and I know that 

 some hesitation, and very properly, was felt whether I should take up geology to 

 any good or useful purpose. But my kind proposer Mr. Clift, the able Curator 



