Eminent Living Geologists — Thomas Davidson, F.R.8. 147 



with 171 plates, drawn upon stone by his own hands. The labour 

 in connexion with this work has been enormous, necessitating much 

 field as well as cabinet labour, but the undertaking was so favour- 

 ably viewed, both at home and abroad, that he received every 

 possible encouragement and assistance from every person to whom 

 he had occasion to apply, so that the number of specimens that 

 passed through his hands for examination during the last thirty or 

 more years has been perfectly surprising. . It became necessary in 

 1853 that he should propose a new classification for the entire group, 

 and this part of the work soon went through a French and German 

 edition. His general introduction was revised by himself, and 

 translated into French and German by M. E. Deslongchamps and 

 his son, and by Dr. Suess and Count Marshall, of Vienna ; Prof. 

 Owen, Dr. Carpenter, and Sir E. Murchison likewise kindly con- 

 tributed chapters to the book. 



During the period employed in the preparation of his English 

 work Davidson's attention was continually directed to the study of 

 the recent and of foreign fossil species, as it was necessary to 

 institute a comparison between those found in other parts of the 

 world and those that occur in Great Britain, and likewise to ascer- 

 tain what was the geological and geographical distribution of the 

 whole group. The study of the soft parts of the animal was also 

 carefully prosecuted. Some of the results of these investigations 

 have been contributed to the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 

 Society, the Bulletin de la Societe Geologique de France, the Annals 

 and Mag. of Nat. Hist., the Geologist and Geological Magazine, 

 the London Geological Journal, Proo. of Linnean Soc. of Normandy, 

 Zool. Soc. of London, Transactions of the Geological Society of 

 Glasgow and Eoyal Society of Liege, etc. 



In 1858 Mr. Davidson was elected one of the Honorary Secretaries 

 of the Geological Society of London. 



On the 17th of February, 1865, Mr. Davidson received from the 

 Council of the Geological Society the Wollaston Gold Medal, and 

 on the 25th of September, 1868, Sir R. Murchison presented him 

 with a Silurian Medal (Survey) for his " Illustrations and History 

 of Silurian Life." 



In December, 1870, Mr, Davidson was awarded the Gold Medal 

 of the Royal Society in recognition of his valuable contributions to 

 Palaeontology. 



At the Anniversary Meeting of the Paleeontographical Society 

 (March 31st) this year, the Council of that Society presented to Mr. 

 Davidson a copy of his magnificent work on British Fossil Brachio- 

 poda, handsomely bound, as a small expression of their high estima- 

 tion of his valuable and protracted labours for the promotion of the 

 objects of the Society. 



List of Mr. Davidson's published works. 



1. British Fossil BracMopoda. 3 volumes in quarto. 1258 pages. 171 plates. 



1850-1871. 



2. Eemarks on sorae Species of BracMopoda. London Geol. Journal, 1847. 



8 pages. 1 plate. 



