Correspondence — L. Hichardson — J. G. Samling. 45 



of altering the specific names of fossils derived from place-names so as 

 to accord with the present rendering upon the Ordnance Survey Maps. 

 The well-known Rhsetic fossil Pleuromya crowcomheia (Moore) is given 

 as Pleuromya crocomheia — the iv is omitted — in the Geological Survey 

 Memoir on "The Geology of the Country hetween Wellington and 

 Chard" (1906, p. 27). 



L. ElCHAKDSON. 



Cheltenham. 



lUh December, 1907. 



NOETH DEVON" ATHEN^UM : GIFT OP THE PARTRIDGE 

 COLLECTIOjST. 



SiE, — This institution has recently received a most valuable gift, the 

 large collection (Partridge Collection) of Devonian and Culm fossils 

 made by Mrs. Coomaraswamy in North and South Devon, and by 

 Dr. Coomaraswamy on the Continent. Included in the Partridge 

 Collection are fourteen specimens figured in the Rev. G. F. Whidborne's 

 Monograph of Devonian Eauna (Palseontographical Society) and the 

 Geological Magazine, iive of them type-specimens. This, added to 

 T. M. Hall's already there, makes the !N"orth Devon Athenaeum Collection 

 one of the most complete of its kind in the kingdom. The specimens 

 being too numerous to be all displayed, Dr. Coomaraswamy has 

 made a selection, for the exhibition of which special cases have been 

 provided; the remainder have been placed in drawers, and, like all 

 the specimens in this Museum, are available for purposes of study. 



Devonshire, eve a prior to this most liberal gift, was rich in local 

 geological collections. It may now be said without exaggeration 

 that the Museums at Exeter, Plymouth, Torquay, and Barnstaple, 

 between them contain practically a complete collection of the fossils- 

 and rocks (so far recorded) of the county. J. G. Hamling. 



The Close, Barnstaple. 



O B I T"Cr.A.I?."5r. 



THE RT. HON. WILLIAM THOMSON, BARON KELVIN, 

 P.C, O.M., G.C.V.O., LL.D., D.C.L., 



Past President of the Royal Society, etc. 



Born June 26, 1824. Died Decembek 17, 1907. 



In the death of Lord Kelvin geologists have lost one who took keeni 

 interest in the physical and astronomical aspects of their science, and 

 aided perhaps more than any other philosopher in this country to place- 

 the subject of Cosmogony on a scientific basis. He dealt with the- 

 evolution of the heavenly bodies, with changes in the position of the 

 earth's axis of' rotation, with the probable condition of the earth's 

 interior, and with the thermal conductivity of rocks. In one respect 

 his views regarding the earth found little support. His calculations 

 on the increase of temperature beneath the surface and the rate of loss 

 of heat from the earth led him in 1862 to argue that the age of the- 



