Qeological Society of London. 185 



Six years ago tho Council of this Society demonstrated the in- 

 terest whicli it took inM. Doshayes's vahiuble irivcKtigations, by 

 awarding him tho Donation-fund. Now that those researches, com- 

 menced just fifty years ago, are completed, and the labours of a life 

 devoted to science are crowned by the publication of five great 

 volumes, containing descriptions and figures of all the Mollusca of 

 the Paris Basin, it has seemed to the Council a fitting opportunity for 

 bestowing the highest honour at its disposal upon the pupil, editor, 

 and continuator of Lamarck, and the worthy successor of his great 

 master in the Chair of Natural History in the Museum d'Histoire 

 Naturelle. 



Mr. Evans read the following reply, on behalf of Prof. Ansted, 

 F.E.S., the Foreign Secretary of the Society, who was unavoidably 

 absent : — • 



I have the honour to acknowledge, on the part of M. Deshayes, 

 the award of the Woollaston Medal, and in forwarding to him this 

 mark of the estimation in which his labours are held among English 

 geologists, I will not fail to communicate the observations you, Sir, 

 as representing the Society, have thought fit to express. 



It is much to be regretted that M. Deshayes is not present in 

 person to receive this Medal, and assure yoii of the extent to which 

 he appreciates it. On three occasions, the first no less than thirty- 

 four years ago, he received the award of the proceeds of the Wollaston 

 Donation-fund to assist him in those long-continued researches of 

 which we have lately received the completion, in the publication of 

 the last volume of the work with which his name will always be 

 connected. Placed in a district rich in an extraordinary degree 

 in fossils of one geological period, he has devoted himself to the 

 study of one important group of these fossils ; and how well he has 

 succeeded his recent appointment to the Chair of Lamarck in Prance, 

 and the award of the Wollaston Medal in England, afford sufficient 

 illustration. 



The President then presented the Balance of the Proceeds of the 

 Wollaston Donation-fund to Mr. Evans, for transmission to M. 

 Marie Eouault, Keeper of the Geological Museum at Eennes, in aid 

 of his researches upon the Palaeontology of the Devonian and Silu- 

 rian Eocks of Brittany, and expressed himself as follows : — 



The cosmopolitanism of science is well illustrated by the fact that 

 all the honours at our disposal this year are gladly and willingly 

 accorded to foreigners. ' The Wollaston Medal has gone to M, 

 Deshayes. The Fund has been awarded by the Council to another 

 member of the same gi'eat nationality, M. Marie Eouault, who, 

 working under difficulties and discouragements such as those which 

 beset the early life of our own Hugh Miller, has made most im- 

 portant contributions to our knowledge of the imm of the oldest 

 palaeozoic rooks of France. 



Mr. Evans read the following acknowledgment on behalf of Prof. 

 Ansted :: — 



In returning thanks on the part of Monsieur Eouault for the 

 grant of the balance of the proceeds of the WoUaston-fund,- 1 will 



