633 
After the Reports had been read, it was resolved,— 
That they be received and entered on the Minutes of the Meet- 
ing; and that such parts of them as the Council may think fit, be 
printed and distributed among the Fellows. 
The President then announced that the Wollaston Medal for 1842 
had been awarded to M. Leopold de Buch, for “the eminent ser- 
vices he has rendered to Geology by his extraordinary and unremit- 
ting exertions during a long series of years, and for his recent re- 
searches in Paleontology ;’ and that the balance of the proceeds for 
the year had been awarded to Mr. Morris, “ to assist him in his in- 
tended publication of a tabular view of British Organic Remains.” 
Previously to delivering the Medal to Mr. De la Beche, the Foreign 
Secretary, to forward to M. de Buch, Mr. Murchison said,— 
GENTLEMEN, 
Since geology has been a science no individual has more success- 
fully applied a powerful mind to its cultivation, or more liberally ex- 
pended his private means in advancing its progress than Leopold 
von Buch. The chief works by which his fame was reared are well 
known; but with the numberless memoirs printed and published at 
his own charge and gratuitously distributed, I regret to say, English 
geologists are by no means sufficiently acquainted; and justice can- 
not be rendered to him until the whole of his researches are brought 
before the public in a combined form. In the mean time we offer 
our Medal to this distinguished man, to show that we seek to re- 
ward him not only for his acknowledged great works, but also for 
those efforts to advance science, which are too little known. Such, 
for instance, is the large geological map of Germany, including the 
Alps and adjacent regions, published without allusion to his name, 
and commonly known as the map of Martin Schropp and Co.; a 
most remarkable production, whether we consider the date of its 
publication or the expenditure of mind, labour, and money which it 
must have cost the author. And although the result of these la- 
bours has since been improved upon by the efforts of several of his 
gountrymen, among whom the names of Hoffmann and Von Dechen 
stand prominently forward, it is well to know that no one has more 
untiringly contributed new information to his younger friends than 
Von Buch. When a traveller at Berlin, upwards of two years ago, 
and lost in admiration at the progress which physical geography 
and geological maps were making in that metropolis, I was much 
surprised to learn, that M. von Buch had in his possession an un- 
published geological map of Bohemia, all, be it observed, worked 
out by his own patient observations on foot. Aware, from a former 
rapid survey of that country, that our knowledge of Bohemia was 
still very imperfect, I obtained from the author a coloured copy, 
which I first exhibited to the British Association at Glasgow (1840), 
and which I now present to the Geological Society. 
Again, after successfully developing, in the spirit of a true phi- 
losopher, the recondite phenomena of the metamorphism of rocks 
