236 Reports and Proceedings — 



rocks is probably often due to similar percolations. It is not impro- 

 bable that quartz may sometimes retain a certain amount of plasticity 

 after it has assumed a crystalline form. 



III.— March 24, 1875— John Evans, Esq., V.P.K.S., President, in 

 the Chair. 



The President announced that the late Sir Charles Lyell had 

 bequeathed to the Society the sum of £2000 for the purposes stated 

 in the following extract from his "Will : — 



" I give to the Geological Society of London the Die executed by 

 Mr. Leonard Wyon of a Medal to be cast in Bronze and to be given 

 annually and called the Lyell Medal, and to be regarded as a mark of 

 honorary distinction and as an expression on the part of the Governing 

 Body of the Society that the Medallist (who may be of any Country 

 or either sex) has deserved well of the Science. I further give to the 

 said Society the sum of Two thousand pounds (free of legacy duty) to 

 be paid to the President and Treasurer for the time being, whose 

 receipt shall be a good discharge to my Executors ; and I direct the 

 said sum to be invested in the name of the said Society, or of the 

 Trustees thereof, in such securities as the Council shall from time to 

 time think proper, and that the annual interest arising therefrom shall 

 be appropriated and applied in the following manner : not less than 

 one-third of the annual interest to accompany the Medal, the remain- 

 ing interest to be given in one or more portions at the discretion of the 

 Council, for the encouragement of Geology or of any of the allied Sciences 

 by which they shall consider Geology to have been most materially 

 advanced, either for travelling expenses or for a memoir or paper 

 published or in progress, and without reference to the sex or nationality 

 of the author or the language in which any such memoir or paper may 

 be written. And I declare that the Council of the said Society shall 

 be the sole judges of the merits of the memoirs or papers for which 

 they may vote the Medal and Eund from time to time. And I direct 

 that the legacy hereinbefore given to the said Society shall be paid out 

 of such part of my personal estate as may be legally applicable to the 

 payment of such bequests." 



Prof. Prestwich said that when he first joined the Geological Society, 

 Sir Charles Lyell, or Mr. Lyell, as he was then, was one of its junior 

 leaders. When his first book appeared, the views advocated in it were 

 regarded with considerable disfavour ; but he supported them by other 

 writings subsequently published, and lived to see them generally 

 received. His words justly carried weight over the whole scientific 

 world, and had greatly increased the number of students of geology, 

 and consequently of Eellows of the Geological Society. For his own 

 part Prof. Prestwich added that, although he might differ from Sir 

 Charles Lyell in some of the conclusions at which he had arrived, all 

 must agree that the manner of proceeding from the known to the 

 unknown adopted by him was the only true method. In conclusion 

 Prof. Prestwich proposed the following resolution : — " That this 

 Meeting, having heard the announcement of the bequest made to the 

 Geological Society by the late Sir Charles Lyell, desire to record their 

 deep sense of the loss the Society has sustained by his death, and their 

 grateful appreciation of the liberal bequest for the advancement of 

 geological knowledge placed at their disposal by their late distinguished 

 Fellow." 



