Reports & Proceedings- — Geological Society of London. 181 



Fellows, a total accession of 56 in the course of 1912. During the 

 same period the losses by death, etc., amounted to 58 (6 more than in 

 1911), the actual decrease in the number of Fellows being, therefore, 

 2 (as compared with a decrease of 5 in 1911). The total number of 

 Fellows on December 31, 1912, was 1,292. 



The Balance-sheet for that year showed receipts to the amount of 

 £3,417 15s. 9^. (excluding the balance of £475 lis. \0d. brought 

 forward from 1911), and an expenditure of £3,252 5s. Qd. 



Reports were communicated from the Director of the British 

 Museum (Natural History) and from the Director of the Museum 

 of Practical Geology, regarding the progress accomplished in the 

 arrangement of the collections transferred to those Museums by the 

 Society. 



The List of Awards of the various Medals and Proceeds of Donation 

 Funds in the gift of the Council was also read. 



The Report of the Library Committee enumerated the extensive 

 additions made during 1912 to the Society's Librarj^ and alluded to 

 the re-arrangement of the Library which is now in progress. 



The Reports having been received, the President handed the 

 Wollaston Medal, awarded to the Rev. Osmond Fisher, M.A., to 

 Sir Archibald Geikie, K.C.B., Pres.R.S., for transmission to the 

 recipient, addressing him as follows : — 



Sir Archibald Geikie, — More than forty years ago, in my earliest struggles 

 with the elements of geology, I received much kindly encouragement from my 

 revered teacher and relative, Osmond Fisher. Twenty years later it was my 

 pleasure to follow his footsteps, and to profit by the closest scrutiny of his 

 work, in the Isle of Purbeck. It is now my privilege to request you to forward 

 to him, in accordance with a unanimous vote, the highest award which it is in 

 the power of the Council of the Geological Society of London to bestow — the 

 Wollaston Medal. 



I have referred especially to his work on the Purbeck Beds, because it is that 

 with which I have the closest acquaintance. Written as long ago as 1856, his 

 paper on that remarkable group of strata has formed the basis of all subsequent 

 investigations ; but no less masterly was his account of the Bracklesham Beds 

 of the Isle of Wight Basin, which followed in 1862. The two together placed 

 him at once in the ranks of those pioneer geologists who, self-trained in all 

 branches of their science, laid the foundations of British stratigraphy. 



It is probable, however, that the name of Osmond Fisher will dwell in the 

 memory of posterity more especially as that of the author of the Physics of 

 the Earth's Crust. First produced in 1881, that work was founded on 

 geological reasoning and mathematical proof which it was within the power of 

 few to appreciate. Its value, growing in recognition during the lapse of more 

 than thirty years, is now acknowledged, and the book has taken rank as a classic 

 on what is perhaps the most recondite subject which a geologist can be called 

 on to investigate. 



It is needless to refer in detail to the papers on a variety of other subjects 

 with which Mr. Fisher has enriched geological literature, for they have already 

 been mentioned from this chair on the occasion of the presentation to him of 

 the Murchison Medal. But to what was then said I will now add that we are 

 rejoiced to see him still maintaining his interest in current geological work at 

 the great age of 95, and that it is a satisfaction to us to add this further proof 

 of our appreciation of his labours. 



Will you, therefore, be so good as to transmit this Wollaston Medal to 

 Osmond Fisher as a recognition by the Council of the lasting value of his 

 " researches concerning the mineral structure of the Earth ". 



