18i Reports and Proceedings — 



sliowino; clearly the order in time of the succession of life on 

 the .2;lobe. 



Both the visitor and student will find this work a concise and 

 handy guide to the rocks and fossils contained in the Museum, 

 which, among many interesting forms, contains the classical 

 specimens collected by Dr. Buckland, and the fine series of Saurian 

 remains obtained by Prof. Phillips and described in his " Geology 

 of Oxford and the Valley of the Thames." J. M. 



GrEOLOGIOAL SoCIKTT OF LoNDON. 



I. — Annual General Meeting. — February 18th, 1881. — Eobert 

 Etheridge, Esq., E.R.S., President, in the Chair. The Secretaries 

 read the Reports of the Council and of the Library and Museum 

 Committee for the year 1880, the Council announcing with much 

 satisfaction that the financial depression under which the Society 

 had been suffering during 1878 and 1870 had proved, as was 

 anticipated, only temporary, and that the Society is now in a very 

 prosperous condition. The Council's Report also announced the 

 publication of the new Catalogue of the Library, which, although 

 considerably larger than was at first expected, will be issued to the 

 Fellows at the price originally fixed for it. The Report further 

 announced the awards of the various Medals and of the proceeds of 

 the Donation Funds in the gift of the Society. 



In presenting the Wollaston Gold Metal to Prof. P. Martin 

 Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., F.G.S., the President addressed him as 

 follows : — 



Professor Duncan, — It is with no ordinary pleasure that the Council have 

 awarded to you the Wollaston Medal, the highest honour that it is in their power to 

 bestow, in recognition of the valuable services which you have rendered during so 

 many years to the advancement of Geology, and especially of Palaeontology ; and 

 I may add that it is equally productive of gratification to me that this honour is to 

 be formally conferred upon you by my hands. Since the year 1863 palaeontologists 

 have been indebted to you for no fewer than twenty-six memoirs relating to the 

 history, structure, and distribution of the fossil Actinozoa, a group which you have 

 made peculiarly your own by long-continued and most careful researches. Further, 

 you have enriched the publications of the Palseontographical Society with several 

 most important treatises on British Fossil Corals, supplementary or, rather, perhaps, 

 complementary to the classical Monograph of MM. Milne-Edwards and Haime. 

 These labours alone, and the value of their results, might have justified the Council 

 in awarding you the "Wollaston Medal ; but besides your researches upon the 

 Actinozoa, we have to point to several important papers upon the fossil Echinoder- 

 mata, to others relating to subjects of Physical Geology (also freely touched upon in 

 your more special memoirs) , and particularly to your exceedingly important work in 

 connexion with the Geological Survey of India, in describing the fossil corals of that 

 Peninsula, and discussing the questions of both zoological and geological interest 

 which naturally arise out of the study of those organisms. Few, indeed, of our 

 Fellows are in a better position to appreciate your valuable labours than myself ; 

 scarcely a day passes that I have not occasion to consult one or more of your 

 contributions ; and the more I consult them the more I am convinced of their value. 

 Patiently and unobtrusively, for nearly twenty years, you have followed out the line 

 of research necessary for the fulfilment of your self-imposed task ; you have 

 sacrificed the advantages of professional life to devote your energies to the advance- 

 ment of science ; for seven years (from ISei to 1870) you gave the Society thC: 



