178 Reports and Proceedings — 



You have kindly informed me that the WoUaston Medal has been awarded as 

 a recognition of my detailed researches, continued through many years, on the 

 structui-e, classification, and distribution of the fossil Echinodermata, published by 

 the Palseontographical Society, and for other memoirs on the Jurassic and Tertiary 

 strata of England. If my life is spared, the event of to-day will become a stimulus 

 to renewed exertion in that path of scientific study in which I have plodded for 

 the last thirty years. As much of that work has been carried out by the Palseonto- 

 graphical Society, perhaps you may allow me to say how much I consider the progress 

 of Geology has been advanced by the splendidly illustrated volumes it has published. 

 They form, indeed, a magnificent monument of unpaid voluntary effort in the cause 

 of Science. 



Let us never forget that much of the knowledge we have acquired in our re- 

 searches concerning the mineral structure of the earth is due to Palaeontology, and 

 that the future of Geology will largely depend on its onward progress. The accurate 

 description of organic forms, their true position in time, and distribution in space is 

 the important province of Palaeontology to determine ; and by correctly translating 

 the archaeology of organic nature into the pages of geological literature, the palaeon- 

 tologist may hope to solve some of the great questions that distract the naturalists of 

 our day, and enable them to read aright the changing conditions under which life 

 existed during vast periods of past time. 



The President then presented the balance of the proceeds of the "WoUaston 

 Donation Fund to Mr. "W. J. SoUas, M.A., F.G.S., and addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Sollas, — I have great pleasure in handing you the Balance of the proceeds of 

 the WoUaston Donation Fund in recognition of your careful morphological and 

 mineralogical studies upon the fossil Spongida. The CouncU of this Society is 

 impressed with the belief that you will continue to benefit palaeontological science 

 by your researches in those Amorphozoa which, up to a recent date, were compara- 

 tively unknown, or whose anatomical characters were misunderstood. Having made 

 an esceUent beginning, of a great course of investigation, you wUl, I trust, be 

 stimulated to perseverance and exactitude by this testimony of the good wishes of 

 this Society. 



Mr. Sollas replied : — Mr. President, — I beg to express my thanks to the Council 

 for their award, and to you, Sir, for the encouraging words with which it has been 

 accompanied. Next to the pleasui'e of discovering something new, and of adding 

 something to the common store of knowledge, I can conceive of no greater gratifica- 

 tion than the appreciation of one's fellow-workers, and the approbation of those 

 whom I am proud to regard as my masters and teachers in Science. The study of 

 the fossil sponges presents us with a true El Dorado of research, to which the way 

 has been clearly opened by the labours of those distinguished spongiologists Bower- 

 bank, Oscar Schmidt, and, lastly. Carter, of whom I hope I may be allowed to say 

 that he is facile princeps. It will now be my duty, as it is my pleasure, to attempt 

 to make use of this " way," to apply the facts which have been discovered concerning 

 the structure of the living sponges to the interpretation of the sponges of the past, 

 and I trust that in this endeavour I may meet vri.th such a measure of success as 

 shaU prove that I have not been an unworthy recipient of the confidence reposed in 

 me to-day. 



The President next handed the Murchison Medal to Mr. "Warington "W. Smyth 

 for transmission to Dr. Hanns Bruno Geinitz, of Dresden, and spoke as follows : — 



Mr. Warington Smyth,— The Council of the Geological Society has awarded the 

 Murchison Medal to Dr. Hanns Bruno Geinitz, Professor of Geology in the University 

 of Dresden, for his researches in the geology and palaeontology of the Palaeozoic and 

 Cretaceous formations of Saxony. For forty years at least Dr. Geinitz has been an 

 assiduous cultivator and promoter of Geological Science. He has especially devoted 

 his attention to the study of the Permian formation, and has greatly increased our 

 knowledge of its fauna and flora. The general difilerences of the Permian and 

 Carboniferous floras have been pointed out by him in his work on the Permian plants 

 of Saxony. His first essay on the Zechstein was in 1838, and subsequently he wrote 

 on the " Grauwacke formation," which included the Silurian, Devonian, and Carboni- 

 ferous strata of Saxony. The Cretaceous formation of the same country also received 

 his attention. A friend of, and co-worker with the donor of this Medal, he not only 

 assisted him in his labours, but was occasionally his companion whilst investigating 

 the more interesting localities around Dresden, services which are acknowledged in 



