186 Reports and Proceedings. 



have been present at this Meeting, and to have thanked the Society 

 personally for the high honour which has now been awarded to him. 



The President then presented the Balance of the proceeds of the 

 Wollaston Donation Fund to the Foreign Secretary for transmission 

 to Dr. H. Nyst, of Brussels, remarking that this distinction had 

 been well earned by Dr. Nyst by his admirable researches upon the 

 MoUuscan and other fossil remains of his native country. 



Mr. W. Smyth briefly thanked the President on behalf of Dr. Nyst. 



The President next presented the Murchison Medal to Dr. J. J. 

 Bigsby, F.E.S., F.G.S., and remarked in so doing that there was a 

 peculiar fitness in this award, which would have met the approval 

 of the distinguished geologist in accordance with whose last wishes 

 this Medal was given. It was awarded to Dr. Bigsby in recognition 

 of his long and valuable labours in that department of geology and 

 paleontology with which the name of Murchison is more particularly 

 connected. 



Dr. Bigsby replied, thanking the Society for the honour conferred 

 upon him, and the President for the terms in which he had spoken 

 of his labours. 



The President then handed half the Balance of the proceeds of the 

 Murchison Geological Fund to E. Etheridge, Esq., F.E.S., F.G.S., 

 for transmission to Ealph Tate, Esq., F.G.S., expressing a hope that 

 it would be regarded by him as a testimony of the value set by the 

 Society upon his palseontological researches, especially on the Fauna 

 of the Lias, and that it would enable him to enlarge the sphere of 

 his investigations. 



Mr. Etheridge, in reply, read a suitable letter of acknowledgment 

 from Mr. Tate. 



The President then presented to Mr. Alfred Bell the other half of 

 the Balance of the proceeds of the Murchison Geological Fund, and 

 stated that this was awarded to him in recognition of his valuable 

 researches upon the fossils of the newer Tertiary beds of this 

 country, and to assist him in the completion of his work upon the 

 Crag deposits of the eastern counties. 



Mr. Bell, in reply, said that he was most grateful for this token 

 of the Society's appreciation of the value of his labours. 



The President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, in 

 which he stated that the pressure of his official duties during the period 

 of his Presidency had prevented his keeping himself thoroughly 

 acquainted with the recent progress of geological research, and he 

 therefore proposed in his present Address to advert rather to those 

 questions in geology which seemed to him still to require an answer. 

 He referred to the relations between geology and cosmogony, to the 

 effects and causes of volcanic and earthquake action, and finally to 

 the great questions which are still unsettled as to the origin of life 

 and the sequence of organic beings on the face of the earth. The 

 Address was prefaced by some obituary notices of Fellows and 

 Foreign Members and Correspondents deceased during the past 

 year, including Mr, J. Wickham Flower, Mr. J. Garth Marshall, 

 Prof. Agassiz, and M. de Verneuil. 



