Geological Society of London. 187 



worker with the microscope, the results cannot fail to be of the utmost importance to 

 our science. These qualifications, rarely united in any one man, are in yourself com- 

 bined witli an untii'ing industry and a love of science for its own sake. Thus we are 

 indebted to you for many important contributions to our knowledge in geology. 

 Your early memoir " Sur les Eoches Plutoniennes de la Belgique et de I'Ardenne 

 Fraucjaise," written in conjunction -with M. de la Vallee Poussin, will long be classic ; 

 your papers on various subjects connected with the Carboniferous Limestone, on the 

 coticule, the phyllites, and other altered rocks of Belgium, and on the deep-sea 

 deposits are too well known to need more than mention, and in recognition of 

 these the Council has awarded you the Bigsby Medal. 



In placing it in your hands may I be allowed to express for myself and others the 

 hope that it will be always a pleasant souvenir of your many friends on this side of 

 the Channel, some of whom, myself included, will not soon forget the pleasant and, 

 to us, most profitable days spent under your guidance in geological studies by the 

 limestone cliffs of the winding Mouse and the wooded crags of the Ardennes. 



Professor Rexakd, in reply, said : — Mr. President and Gentlemen,— In rising to 

 express my thanks to you I labour under a great disadvantage ; it would have greatly 

 conduced to my comfort to speak in my own language, but the magnitude of the 

 honour you have conferred upon me makes me feel that I must at all events attempt 

 to address you in your tongue. 



To hold the Medal which you have awarded to me is no common distinction. I 

 cannot but feel that you are rating my merits more highly than they deserve. 

 Though not an Englishman, I never feel myself a stranger in your country. I have 

 visited it so often, and had so much friendly intercom-se with your scientific men, that 

 I am not altogether without misgiving that your Council may, unconsciously to 

 themselves, have supplemented my deficiencies as a geologist by their personal 

 fiiendliness towards myself. The particular line of study to which I have devoted 

 myself is essentially EngKsh. Your couDtryman, Sorby, was the pioneer of micro- 

 scopic lithology, and I have only followed the track which he was the first to open up. 



In conclusion, allow me to say that though sensible of my own deficiencies, I am 

 confident that your good opinion will stimulate me to fresh exertions. I shall pursue 

 my scientific work with renewed energy, and it will be my constant endeavom- to show 

 you that your confidence was not altogether misplaced, and make myself in the future 

 worthy of the great honour you have conferred upon me. 



' The President then read his Anniversary Address, in which, after 

 giving obituary notices of some of the Members lost by the Society 

 during tlie year 1884, he referred to the principal contributions to 

 geological knowledge which have been made during the past vear, 

 both in the publications of the Society and elsewhere in Britain, 

 concluding with a notice of the new views which have been adopted 

 with regard to the structure of the Western Highlands, and a brief 

 history of the steps by which they have been arrived at. The con- 

 cluding portion of the address was devoted to a discussion of the 

 principles of nomenclature which should be followed in petrology, 

 with remarks on the classification of igneous rocks, and on the 

 signiiicance of certain structures, especially the more minute. 



The ballot for the Coimcil and Officers was taken, and the following duly elected 

 for the ensuing year: — Frtsldent : Prof. T. G. B(mney, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R. S. 

 Vice-Piemlents : W. Carruthers, Esq., F.E.S ; John Evans, D.C.L., LL D., 

 F.R.S. ; J. W. Hulke, Esq., F.ll.S. ; and J. A. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S. 

 Secretaries: W. T. Blanford, LL.D., F.R.S., and Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S. 

 Foreign Secretary: Warrington W. Smvth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. Treasurer: 

 Prof. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S. Council: H. Bauerman, Esq.; W. T. 

 Blanford, LL.D., F.R.S.; Prof. T. G. Bouncy, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S.; W. 

 Carruthers, Esq., F.R.S. ; Prof. W. Bovd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S. ; John Evans, 

 D.C.L., LL.D., F.R.S.; A. Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.; Henry Hicks, M.D.; Rev. 

 Edwin Hill, M. A. ; G. J. Hinde, Ph.D. ; John Hopkinson, Esq. ; W. H. Hudleston, 

 Esq., M.A., F.R.S. ; J. W. Ilulke, Esq., F.R.S. ; Prof. T. Rupert Jones, F.R.S. ; 

 Prof. J.W.Judd,F.R.S.; J. E. Marr,Esq., M.A.; J. A. Phillips, Esq., F.R.S.; Prof. 



