Geological Society of London. 185 
branch of biology during half a century. In asking you to transmit to him this 
Medal, I would desire you to express to him the high estimation in which this Society 
holds his work. 
Mr. Warineton Smyru, in reply, said: I have been requested by Prof. Goppert 
to convey to the Society his hearty thanks for the honour done him by the award of 
the Medal founded by his lamented friend and correspondent Sir R. Murchison. The 
announcement came at an opportune time, as serving in some degree to raise his 
spirits when suffering from a domestic bereavement. It happens also to have been 
coincident with the completion of the great work on his favourite subject of amber 
and its organic remains, first brought before this Society by our Medallist in 1845. 
And when I remind our younger Fellows that Géppert commenced writing on 
scientific subjects as far back as 1828, and that the number of his works and 
papers amounts in the Royal Society’s Catalogue to 245, they will be apt to 
wonder that he was not years ago selected as the recipient of the highest honour 
the Society could bestow. Regretting deeply the circumstances which prevent Dr. 
Géppert from being present on this occasion, I have great pleasure in receiving 
for him a mark of honour so well deserved by the veteran geologist, whose name 
stands in so prominent a position in the special branch of paleeophytology. 
The Presipent then handed to Prof. Morris, M.A., F.G.S., for transmission to 
Mr. John Young, F.G.S., the balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Donation 
' Fund, and said:—Professor Morris,—The Council of the Geological Society, in 
awarding to Mr. John Young, of the Hunterian Museum, Glasgow, the balance of 
the proceeds of the Murchison Donation Fund, wishes to mark its appreciation 
of the value of his long-continued researches on the fossil polyzoa, especially those 
of the western part of Scotland, and of his investigations into the structure of the 
shells of the Carboniferous Brachiopoda. In his absence, I have much pleasure in 
placing the amount in your hands for transmission to him. 
Professor Morris, in reply, said: Mr. President, I have much pleasure in receiving 
the balance of the Murchison Fund for Mr. J. Young, who regrets his inability to 
attend, and has sent me the following letter to read to the Society :— 
‘‘ Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow, Feb. 7th, 1883: Will you kindly 
convey to the President and Council of the Geological Society the gratification I feel 
at the honour they have conferred upon me by associating my name with those of the 
former recipients of the Murchison Geological Fund, and at the same time express my 
regret that circumstances prevent my being present at the Meeting of the Society to 
receive the award in person from the hands ot the President. 
‘“T appreciate the honour all the more as having been altogether unexpected by me. 
It has been my greatest pleasure during my lite to employ my leisure time as an 
humble investigator of the Carboniferous strata and fossils of the West of Scotland ; 
but I never imagined that my work would have merited the distinction which the 
Council of the Society have bestowed upon it. 
‘My work among the Scottish Carboniferous fossils has led me to collect and 
study carefully under the microscope, not only the Microzoa but also the ‘shell- 
structure of many of the larger organisms found in the strata, and that I have been 
fortunate in discovering some new forms, and also in finding some new points of 
structure in others already known and described, I attribute chiefly to the methods of 
research which I employed, and to the fact that the organisms found in our strata are 
often better preserved than is usual elsewhere. 
“Tt has been for me sufficient reward to have been able to assist, in however small 
a degree, several eminent paleontologists in their researches among some of the fossil 
groups, such as the Brachiopoda, Foraminifera, and Entomostraca, by sending them 
specimens from our western Scottish coalfield, many of which have been figured and 
described. But the honour which the Society has now conferred upon me will, I trust, 
encourage me to further research among the Scottish Carboniferous fossils, in which, 
especially among the Polyzoa and their allies, much still remains to be discovered. 
By so doing, I hope to fulfil in some measure the object which the illustrious geolo- 
gist had in view when he instituted this fund.—Joun Youne.”’ 
I may state in conclusion, that in addition to the assistance rendered to other 
aleeontologists, to which Mr. Young so modestly alludes, he has within the period 
‘of the last twenty years published nearly 50 papers, the results of his researches 
during that time. 
The President next presented the Lyell Medal to Dr. W. B. Carpenter, C.B., 
