64 
of natural history, the infusorial animals, his study for many years ; 
had travelled to the shores of the Mediterranean and the Red Sea 
in order to observe them; and had published (in conjunction with 
Prof. Muller) a work far eclipsing anything which had previously 
appeared upon the subject. It was in consequence of his being 
thus prepared, that when his attention was called to the subject of 
fossil Infusoria, (which was done in June, 1836, by M. Fischer) he 
was able to produce, not loose analogies and insecure conjectures, 
but a clear determination of many species, many of them already 
familiar to him, although hardly ever seen perhaps by any other eye. 
The animals (for he has proved them to be animals, and not, as others 
had deemed them, plants) consist, in the greater number of examples, 
of a staff-like siliceous case, with a number of transverse markings ; 
and these cases appear in many instances to make up vast masses by 
mere accumulation without any change. Whole rocks are composed 
of these minute cuirasses of crystal heaped together. Prof. Ehren- 
berg himself has examined the microscopic products of fifteen locali- 
ties, and is still employed in extending 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 honoured 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 mentioned. 
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 medal, Prof. Ehrenberg 
has announced to the Royal Academy of Sciences 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, 
