THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE V. VOL. III. 



No. IV.— APRIL, 1906. 



oiaia-xisrjLij .^.laTiGXiES, 



I. — Lamarck and Playfair : A Geological Ketrospect of the 



Year 1802.^ 



By Sir Archibald Geikie, Sc.D., D.C.L., LL.D., Sec.E.S., 

 President of the Geological Society. 



WHEN the "Alliance Frangaise" did me the honour of inviting 

 me to give an address on this interesting occasion, the choice 

 of an appropriate subject of discourse presented at first some little 

 difficulty. On the one hand, as a representative of science in the 

 "Alliance Franco-Britannique," it appeared to be incumbent upon 

 me to choose some topic of a scientific kind, and by preference one 

 which would in some way link our two countries together in 

 common bonds of association. On the other hand, it was obviously 

 inadvisable that the theme should be of a technical character which 

 would be little suited for a general audience. After some reflection 

 I decided to present for your consideration a brief account of two 

 remarkable volumes, both of which, dealing with geological questions, 

 appeared in the year 1802, the one in Paris, the other in Edinburgh. 

 Though the political sympathies which for so many generations 

 had linked France and Scotland in a friendly alliance had fallen 

 somewhat into abeyance by the beginning of last century, the 

 two nations still continued to be drawn to each other in the realms 

 of culture by a common ardour in the prosecution of science and 

 philosophy, and by the mutual reaction which, in these great 

 domains of human thought, they exerted on each other. 



At the time which I have selected for review, the science of 

 geology, though still in its infancy, had awakened widespread 

 interest on both sides of the Channel. The French and English 

 observers who pursued it kept themselves, for the most part, in touch 

 with the progress of enquiry in both countries. Thus, it is pleasant 

 to remember that Desmarest, one of the brightest lights in the 

 history of French geology, though he had determined not to notice 

 in his great " Geographie Physique " the work of living writers, 

 departed from his rule in order to give his fellow-countrymen an 



1 An address delivered before the "Alliance Fran9ai3e " in the Sorboune, Paris, 

 on 26th February, 1906. 



DECADE V. — VOL. III. NO. IV. 10 



