Prof. Ramsay's Address to Section C. British Association. 459 



II. — British Association for the Advancement of Science. 

 Jubilee Meeting, Yoek. Address to the Geological Sectiou 

 by the President, A. C. Ramsay, LL.D., F.R.S., etc., Director- 

 General of the Geolgical Survey, September 1st, 1881. 



On the Origin, Progkess, and Present State of British Geology, 

 especially since the First Meeting of the British Associa- 

 tion at York in 1831. 



JN the year 1788, Hutton published his first sketch of his " Theory 

 of the Earth," afterwards extended and explained by Playfair 

 in a manner more popular and perspicuous than is done in Hutton's 

 own writings. In this grand work, Hutton clearly explains that the 

 oldest known strata, like their successors, are derivative, and tliat as 

 far as observation can discover, in all geological time, " we find no 

 vestige of a beginning, and no sign of an end." The complement 

 to this far-seeing observation was at length brought about by William 

 Smith, in his original " Geological Map of the Strata of England and 

 Wales" in 1815, followed, in 1816, by his -'Strata Identified by 

 Organized Fossils." This great discovery, for such it was, threw a 

 new light on the history of the earth, proving what had before been, 

 unknown, that all the " Secondary" formations at least, from the Lias 

 to the Chalk inclusive, contained each a set of distinctive fossils by 

 which it could be recognized. A law was thus provided for the 

 identification of formations which geographically are often widely 

 separated from each other, not only in England in the case of minor 

 outliers, but also easily applicable to great areas on the neighbouring 

 continent of Europe. 



In 1811, the first volume of the "Transactions" of the Geological 

 Society was published, and in 1826-27, there appeared the first 

 volume of the " Proceedings," the object being to communicate to 

 the Fellows as promptly as possible the proceedings of the Society 

 " during the intervals between the appearance of the several parts of 

 the Transactions." The last volume of the " Transactions " contains 

 memoirs read between the years 1845-1856, and only four volumes 

 of the •'' Proceedings " appeared between the years 1826 and 1845 

 inclusive, after which the title of the annual volume was changed to 

 that of the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society." The 

 Geological Society, to which the science owes so much, was therefore 

 in full action when the British Association was founded in 1831, and 

 the memoirs read before the Society from 1831 to this date may be 

 said to show generally the state of British geology during the last 

 fifty years. To this must be added the powerful influence of the 

 first (1830) and later editions of Lyell's "Principles of Geology," a 

 work which helped to lay the foundations of those researches in 

 Physical Geology which both in earlier and later years have attracted 

 so much attention. 



Fifty years ago in this city, Yiscount Milton was President of the 

 first meeting of "The British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science," which he explained had for its chief object " to give a 

 stronger impulse and more systematic direction to scientific inquiry." 



