118 Ehrenherg's Discoveries — -Notices of Erainent Men. 



his researches ; and we already see researches of the same kind 

 undertaken by others, to such an extent, as to show us that this 

 new path of investigation will exercise a powerful influence upon 

 the pursuits of geologists. We are sure therefore that we have 

 acted in a manner suitable to the wishes of the honored Donor of 

 the medal, and to the interests of the science which we all in 

 common seek to promote, in assigning the Wollaston medal to 

 Prof. Ehrenberg for these discoveries. ' 



Although it is not necessary as a ground for this adjudication, 

 it is only justice to Prof. Ehrenberg to remark, that his services to 

 geology are not confined to the researches which I have men- 

 tioned. His observations, made in the Red Sea, upon the growth 

 of corals, are of great value and interest ; and he was one of the 

 distinguished band of scientific explorers who accompanied Baron 

 von Humboldt in his expedition to the Ural Mountains. And I 

 may further add, that even since the Council adjudged this med- 

 al. Prof. Ehrenberg has announced to the Royal Academy of Sci- 

 ences of Berlin new discoveries ; particularly his observations on 

 the organic structure of chalk ; on the freshwater Infusoria found 

 near Newcastle and Edinburgh, and on the marine animalcules 

 observed near Dublin and Gravesend ; and, what cannot but give 

 rise to curious reflections, an account o{ meteoric paper 'which fell 

 from the sky in Courland in 1686, and is found to be composed 

 of Confervge and Infusoria. 



I now proceed to notice some of the most conspicuous names, 

 both among our own countrymen and foreigners, which have been 

 removed by death from our lists since last year. 



In Sir Abraham Hume the Society has lost a member who was 

 at all times one of its most strenuous friends and most liberal sup- 

 porters, and especially in its earliest periods, when such aid was 

 of most value. Indeed he may in a peculiar manner be consid- 

 ered as one of the Founders of the Society. English geology, as 

 is well known, evolved itself out of the cultivation of mineralogy, 

 — a study which was in no small degree promoted, at one time, 

 by the fame of the mineralogical collections- of Sir Abraham 

 Hume and others. The Count de Bournon, exiled by the French 

 revolution in 1790, brought to England new and striking views 

 of crystallography, resembling those which Haiiy was unfolding 

 in France ; and was employed to arrange and describe the miner- 

 alogical collections of Sir John St. Aubyn and Mr. Greville, and 



