182 Reports and Proceedings— 
in the total number of Fellows. The numbers of contributing 
Fellows was reduced by 8. The Balance-sheet showed receipts 
to the amount of £2866 16s. 10d., and a total expenditure of 
£2739 16s. 1d., including a sum of £159 9s. 2d. expended in the 
purchase of stock. The actual excess of receipts over expenditure 
was £127 Os. 9d., and the balance in favour of the Society was 
£248 12s. 5d. The Report also mentioned the proceedings taken 
during the year in connexion with the proposed revision of the 
Bye-Laws, and briefly noticed the Meeting of the International 
Geological Congress in London in September. In conclusion it 
announced the awards of the various Medals and of the proceeds of 
the Donation Funds in the gift of the Society. 
The Report of the Library and Museum Committee, after enume- 
rating the additions made to the Society’s Library and Collections 
during 1888, referred briefly to the work done in the Museum, in 
the way of cleaning and putting it in order. 
In presenting the Wollaston Gold Medal to Prof. T. G. Bonney, 
D.Sc., F.R.S., the President addressed him as follows: 
Professor Bonney,—A Medal that was instituted to promote researches concerning 
the mineral structure of the earth cannot be more appropriately awarded than for 
petrological studies. That the method of research has changed since Wollaston’s 
time is largely due to the improvement of modern instruments; the work carried on 
by yourself and others with the microscope is in direct continuation of that done by 
Wollaston, his contemporaries and many of his followers with the goniometer, the 
test-tube, and the balance. In your hands the microscope has been a valuable 
adjunct to field-observation, and has been chiefly applied to detect the secrets of 
those rocks which, possessing no organic remains to betray the tale of their origin, 
have hitherto succeeded in baffling the curiosity of geologists as to their early 
history. In many parts of the British Islands, throughout the Alps, and in Canada, 
especially where ancient and obscure formations presented puzzles yet unsolved, you 
have been occupied in adding to our knowledge. Nor has your attention been con- 
fined to Archean and Plutonic rocks; you were a leader of the opposition to the 
prevalent, but perhaps somewhat exaggerated view of the powers of glacial erosion, 
and you have applied the same key that had admitted you to the inner mysteries of 
metamorphic formations to unlock the history of British sedimentary rocks. 
In conferring upon you the chief mark of distinction in its gift, the Council 
desires to evince its appreciation of your scientific researches, and the Fellows of the 
Society will, I feel sure, heartily endorse the presentation of the Wollaston Medal to 
you, who have served so long and so successfully as one of their principal officers. 
Prof. Bonney, in reply, said :—Mr. President,—It is difficult for me adequately 
to express my gratitude to the Council for the great honour which they have con- 
ferred upon me, and to you for the terms in which you have spoken of my work. Of 
this, the defects to myself seem more conspicuous than the merits. I can only plead 
in excuse for those, that my work has been carried on under many difficulties on 
which I will not now enlarge. It has been incomplete and preparatory, often 
destructive rather than constructive, that of a seeker after truths to which another 
generation will attain. If, indeed, there be any good in it, this is because through- 
out I have studied nature more than books, ] have sought for reasons rather than 
for authorities, and in so doing have endeavoured to apply the principles of induction 
which I learnt years ago at Cambridge in the study of mathematics. Still, I am 
conscious that for this crowning honour I am indebted more to the kindly feeling of 
others than to my own merits, and can only promise that, if time for scientific work 
yet remain, I will try to become more worthy of the distinction which has been 
awarded to me. 
In handing the Murchison Medal to Mr. William Topley, F.R.S., 
for transmission to Professor James Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.8., 
the President addressed him as follows: 
