42 



Address delivered at the Annhersurij Meeting of the Geological Society, 

 on the 2\st of February XWiA, hi/ Gv.orgk Bkllas Greenough, Esq. 

 President. 



Gentlemen, 



You have learned from the Report of the Council that the Society 

 has considerably gained in number since the last Annual Meeting. 

 So large an accession of members shows the growing popularity of 

 our science, and is at once a gratify! ng reward of your past exertions 

 and a sure presage of your further success. 



You have also been informed that during the same period the 

 losses of the Society have been unusually numerous. Several of the 

 deceased, whose main objects in life, if not alien, were connected 

 but remotely with those of our institution, conferred upon it, notwith- 

 standing, by their enlightened encouragement, important advantage: 

 but the merits of the poet, the historian, the statesman, the warrior, 

 though recorded in the annals of a grateful country', must not here 

 be dwelt upon. To the memory of those only who have been closely 

 allied to us, as fellow. labourers, will you desire that I should pay, 

 individually, the well-earned tribute of our common regret. 



The late Dr. Babington, whom we have been accusto.med to look 

 to with a respect almost filial, attached himself in early life to the 

 study of chemistry and mineralogy. In the year 1795, he published 

 a Systematic Arrangement of his collection of minerals purchased of 

 the Earl of Bute, the finest, perhaps, which at that period existed 

 in England ; and in 1799, his New System of Mineraloj^y, which may 

 be considered a continuation of the former work. These works, now 

 superseded by others, which the introduction of improved modes of 

 inquiry and the application of new instruments have rendered more 

 perfect, evince much patient research and an exact knowledge of 

 the state of mineralogy at that time. Active in the cultivation of 

 science himself. Dr. Babington was quick to discern and eager to 

 encourage merit in others. With a view to enable Count Bournon, 

 of whom he had been a pupil, to publish his elaborate monograph on 

 carbonate of lime, Dr. Babington, in 1807, invited to his bouse a num- 

 ber of gentlemen the most distinguished for their zeal in the prose- 

 cution of mineralogical knowledge. A subscription was opened and 

 the necessary sum readily collected. This object having been ac- 

 complished, other meetings of the same gentlemen took place for 

 the joint purpose of friendly intercourse and mutual instruction. 

 From such small beginnings sprang the Geological Society; and 

 among the names of those by whose care and watchfulness it was 

 supported during the early and most perilous crisis of its history, 

 that of Dr. Babington must always stand conspicuous. 



But while Dr. Babington employed his leisure in the study of 

 chemistry and mineralogy, he gradually rose into eminence as a 

 physician, and at last became occupied with the care of a numerous 

 family, and subjected to all the labour and responsibility of exten- 

 siivc medical practice. During many years, he was disabled from 



