224 J, W. Judd — On the use of the term Neocomian. 



liiglily objectionable and misleading name appears to have been 

 seized upon by the members of the Geological Society as a means of 

 compromising the differences of opinion of the two illustrious leaders, 

 Webster and JB'ittou, and thus a term, characterised by the illogicality 

 inherent to such compromises, obtained an extensive currency. In 

 Murchison's paper on parts of Sussex, Hants, and Surrey,^ read 

 before the Geological Society in December, 1825, the beds in question 

 are called " Lower Greensand, Carstone, or Shanklin Sands." In 

 Martin's paper on the vicinity of Pulborough^ (read March, 1827), 

 and in his " Geology of West Sussex" (1828), the whole series of 

 beds between the Gault and Weald Clay is called " Shanklin Sand," 

 the upper portion being described under the name of " Ferruginous 

 Sands," while the term "Lower Greensand" is restricted to the 

 lower portion. 



On the first suggestion of the term "Lower Greensand," Dr. 

 Fitton pointed out some of the very forcible objections to its use,' 

 and though, in his great work on the strata between the Chalk and 

 the Oxford Oolite (read in 1827, but not published till 1836), he 

 follows what had then become the common custom, he accompanies 

 the use of the term with a strong protest.* In 1845 the same author 

 writes as follows : — He "■ had long since stated the objections to 

 which the name Lower Greensand was exposed, but thought it 

 expedient in 1835 to adopt that term, on the ground of its universal 

 employment in England, and its very general reception on the Con- 

 tinent. On this ground he thinks that this name ought, for the 

 present, to be retained. If, hereafter, a change be thought desirable, 

 he conceives that the new denomination should be taken from the 

 Isle of Wight, where this portion of the Subcretaceous Eocks was 

 first distinguished, and where the sections on the coast are remarkable 

 for their distinctness ; and if such a case should arise, he suggests 

 the name of Vectine for the strata now called Lower Greensand, 

 from the ancient name of that island, Insula Vectis of the Eomans."* 

 If I do not here quote any particular passage from the valuable 

 series of contributions on this subject from the pen of Mr. Godwin- 

 Austen, it is because almost every page of those memoirs exposes the 

 viciousness of the term " Lower Greensand," and indicates the 

 necessity for a change.* 



While such varied complications and confusion had arisen in this 

 country in the matter of the classification and nomenclature of the 

 Siibcretaceous strata, the geologists of Switzerland and France were 

 gradually Avorking out the tru.e relations of the fine development of 

 the same formation on the flanks of the Jura. Passing over the early 

 researches of Borguet, de Saussure, and Von Buch, each of whom 



' Trans. Geol. Soc, second series, vol. ii., p. 97. 



^ Proc. Geol. Soc., vol. i., p. 19. 



3 Auiials of Philosophy, new series, vol. Adii. (1824), p. 461. 



* Trans. Geol. ir^oc, 2iid series, vol. iv., p. 103, 



^ Quart. Journal Geol. Soc. vol. i., p. 189. 



8 See, especiall)', •' On the Geology of the South-east of Surrey," Proc. Geol. Soc. 

 iv., p. 167, 196; and "On the Age and Position of the Fossiliferous Sands and 

 Gravels of Farrhigdon," Quart. Journal Geol. fcoc, vol. vi,, p, 454. 



