Ehrenherg's Discoveries — Notices of Eminent Men. 119 



especially the collection of diamonds of Sir Abraham Hume, of 

 which a description, illustrated with plates, was published in 

 1816. Some years before this period a few lovers of mineralogy 

 met at stated times at the house of Dr. Babington, whose influ- 

 ence in preparing the way for the formation of this Society was 

 mentioned with just acknowledgment in the President's Address, 

 in 1834, by Mr. Greenough ; and certainly he, more fitly perhaps 

 than any other person, could speak of the merits and services of 

 his fellow laborers. Of the number of these Sir Abraham Hume 

 was one ; although not, I believe, one of those who showed their 

 zeal for the pursuits which associated them by holding their 

 meetings at the hour of seven in the morning, the only time of 

 the day which Dr. Babington's professional engagements allowed 

 him to devote to social enjoyments of this nature. 



Out of the meetings to which I refer this Society more imme- 

 diately sprung. The connection of mineralogy with geology is 

 somewhat of the nature of that of the nurse with the healthy child 

 born to rank and fortune. The foster-mother, without being 

 even connected by any close natural relationship with her charge, 

 supplies it nutriment in its earliest years, and supports it in its 

 first infantine steps ; but is destined, it may be, to be afterwards 

 left in comparative obscurity by the growth and progress of her 

 vigorous nursling. Yet though geology now seeks more various 

 and savoury food from other quarters, she can never cease to look 

 back with regard and gratitude to the lap in which she first sat, 

 and the hands that supplied her early wants. And our warm ac- 

 knowledgments must on all due occasions be paid to those who 

 zealously cultivated mineralogy, when geology as we now under- 

 stand the term, hardly existed ; and who, when the nobler and 

 more expansive science came before them, freely and gladly trans- 

 ferred to that their zeal and their munificence. 



The spirit which prevailed in the infancy of this Society, and 

 to which the Society owed its permanent existence, was one 

 which did not shrink from difficulties and sacrifices ; and among 

 the persons who were animated by this spirit Sir Abraham Hume 

 was eminent ; his purse and his exertions being always at the 

 service of the body. He gave his labors also to the Society by 

 taking the office of Vice-President, which he discharged with 

 diligence from 1809 to 1813. He died in March last at the great 

 age of ninety, being then the oldest person both in this and in the 

 Royal Society. 



