570 Reports and Proceedings — 



poraries. The President also alluded to his valuable services in 

 Parliament for well-nigh fifty years — but most of all as the repre- 

 sentative man of science ; and in this his highest capacity he asked 

 Sir Philip Egerton to accept the Kingsley Memorial Medal. 



Sir Philip Grey-Egerton in reply thanked the President and 

 Committee of the Society for having awarded that medal (founded 

 to perpetuate the memory of the late Canon Kingsley) to him. He 

 wished he could be inspired with the fervid eloquence which flowed 

 from the lips of him whose likeness was so faithfully portrayed 

 on that medal, and whose burning words found their way into the 

 hearts of all his audience, not only in Chester, but throughout the 

 United Kingdom. He should look back to this presentation as one 

 of the happiest events in his life, as connecting his name with that 

 of his late friend, Canon Kingsley ; and he thanked his friends in 

 Chester who had wished thus to associate him with the founder of 

 their Society. He trusted the flame which Canon Kingsley had 

 kindled would never be darkened, but extend its genial light further 

 and further, illuminating with its brilliancy all who might be for- 

 tunate to come within reach of its radiance. 



II. — Geological Society of London. — November 5, 1879. — Henry 

 Clifton Sorby, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " On the probable Temperature of the Primordial Ocean of our 

 Globe." By Robert Mallet, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



According to the latest hypotheses as to the quantity of water on 

 the globe, its pressure, if evenly distributed, would be equal to a 

 barometric pressure of 204-74 atmospheres. Accordingly water, 

 when first it began to condense on the surface of the globe, would 

 condense at a much higher temperature than the present boiling- 

 point, under ordinary circumstances. The first drops of water 

 formed on the cooling surface of the globe may not impossibly have 

 been at the temperature of molten iron. As the water was pre- 

 cipitated, condensation of the remaining vapour took place at a 

 lower temperature. The primordial atmosphere would be more 

 oblate and less penetrable by solar heat than the present, and the 

 difference of temperature between polar and equatorial regions 

 would be greater ; so that, in the later geologic times, ice may have 

 formed in the one, while the other was too hot for animal or vege- 

 table life. Thus, formerly the ocean would be a more powerful dis- 

 integrant and solvent of rocks, mineral changes would be more rapid, 

 and meteoric agencies would produce greater effects in a given time. 



Replying to remarks from the President, Mr. John Evans, Prof. 

 Prestwich, Dr. Hicks, Prof. Bonney, and Capt. Galton, Mr. Mallet 

 said he did not suppose any part of the original crust of the globe 

 remained at present visible at the surface. Such geological deductions 

 as were made in his paper were only illustrative, and might be open 

 to question. The epoch at which the phenomena occurred to which 

 his paper referred was long anterior to the existence of either animal 

 or vegetable life upon our globe. Hence the pala^ontological ob- 



