Geological Society of London. ' 177 



in the collection of the British Museum ; which he further compared with a third 

 specimen from Brook, in the Isle of Wight. He had little douht that Mr. Willett's 

 specimen had been correctly identified, and thought it and the Brook skull were 

 probably specifically identical. All these skulls belong to a group intermediate 

 between the Wesosuchia and Eusuchia of Prof. Huxley. In the constitution and 

 position of the palato-nares they most nearly resemble Metriorhynchiis Bl'iinvillii, 

 Desl., among the Mesosuchia. The general contour of the skuU resembles that 

 prevalent in the typical Crocodiles, such as Crocodilus rhombifer. In the arrest of 

 the nasal bones short of the anterior nares they rather resemble Gavialis, and still 

 more the Bornean Rhynchosuchus Schegelii, as also in the form of the palato-nares. 

 From the combination of characters presented by these Crocodiles (which the author 

 regards as representing two species of Goniopholis) and their geological age, the 

 author proposes to place them in an intermediate subgroup, which may be designated 

 Meta- M esosuchia. 



II. — Annual General Meeting. — February IStli, 1878. — Prof. 

 P. Martin Duncan, M.B., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



The Secretaries read the Reports of the Council and of the Library and Museum 

 Committee for the year 1877. The Society was described as in an exceedingly 

 prosperous condition, and the income of the year was stated to have considerably 

 exceeded the expenditure. The number of Fellows elected was fully up to the 

 average. The Eeport further announced the receipt of a bequest of £500 under 

 the will of the late C. Lambert, Esq., which sum, with £150 of the surplus of income, 

 had been invested in Consols for the benefit of the Society. 



In presenting the Wollaston Gold Medal to Dr. Thomas Wright, F.R.S., F.G.S., 

 the President addressed him as follows : — 



Dr. Wright, — It gives me very great pleasure to present this Medal to you, and 

 to know that your name will be enrolled amongst those of the many distinguished 

 men who, -like yourself, have earned this distinction by long and successful labour in 

 geological science. Youi- careful palseontological work amongst the Echinodermata 

 of the Secondary rocks of England has been as interesting and important to those 

 palfeontologists who have followed you in the study, as your description of the 

 Maltese Echinoidea. You have not only collected, but have described carefiiUy 

 some of the most important Mesozoic corals, and have clearly distinguished the 

 succession of some local coral reefs in the British area. Your stratigraphical labours 

 amongst the Rhaetic, Jurassic, and Oolitic formations have led to excellent results. 

 Your classification of the great groups of Echinoidea has stood the test of time, and 

 is still employed ; and the description and analysis of the species, illustrated so 

 exquisitely, in the volumes of the Palaeontographical Society, are models of terse 

 exactitude. Your determination of the correct relation of the madreporic body to 

 the antero-posterior axis of the Echinoid has been accepted by nearly every 

 naturalist, and its bearing on the elucidation of the meaning of the apical system of 

 the Salenidae is of much importance. The Council considers that your industry and 

 the excellent results of your study establish your claim to this Medal, and I hope 

 that its reception wiU not only stimulate you to further research, but wUl reward you 

 for the sacrifices that every man who combines a scientific and a professional career 

 has to suffer. 



Dr. Wright, in reply, said : — Mr. President, — I am deeply sensible of the very 

 great honour the Council of the Geological Society has conferred in awarding me the 

 WoUaston Medal, and I beg to return my most heartfelt thanks for their apprecia- 

 tion of my humble labours in palseontological studies. To be enrolled in the list of 

 eminent men on whom this great distinction has been conferred is a position of which 

 the most ambitious may well be proud, whilst the graceful and eulogistic phrases 

 with which you, Mr. President, have conveyed the award, and the friendly greeting 

 I have received from Fellows assembled here to-day, have all touched me exceed- 

 ingly, and I can find no language adequate to express the sentiments of gratitude I 

 experience on this occasion. It is at aU times a pleasure to receive from our con- 

 temporaries working on the same line with ourselves a friendly estimate of our 

 honest endeavours, but when the Council of this great Society, which counts among 

 its Members some of the most learned masters of Geological Science,. bestows its 

 highest award as an acknowledgment of the worth of my scientific work, I confess 

 how much indeed I appreciate the distinction, and how highly I value the prize. 



DECADE n. VOL. T. — NO, IV. 12 



