XXX PBOCEBDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAIi SOCIETY. 



THE ANNIVEESAET ADDEESS OF THE PEESIDENT, 



"William John Hamiltois", Esq., E.E.S. 



Before reading tliose observations whicti, as your President, 

 it is my duty to make respecting the recent progress of geological 

 science, I have a more painful duty to fulfil, in bringing before 

 you the Obituary Notices of those Members of the Society whose 

 loss we have had to deplore during the past year, and who have 

 contributed by their exertions to the advancement of our science. 

 Sad as such a list must always be, it is more particularly so on the 

 present occasion, when we remember that it contains the names 

 of several of the most distinguished ornaments of our science ; 

 men who have spent their lives in the zealous prosecution of 

 geological and palaeontological investigations, and who have been 

 most active in promoting the welfare and prosperity of our Society. 

 Two of these have filled the Office of President, and another was 

 one of the m.mt distinguished Palaeontologists of his day, — I 

 need hardly say that I allude to the names of Horner, Portlock, 

 and Falconer. The loss of Mr. Horner is one which we shall 

 long feel. From the very first moment when he became connected 

 with this Society until almost the last day of his life, he was one 

 of its most active members. The zeal and interest which he dis- 

 played in its prosperity were unceasing ; he was ever ready to 

 contribute his assistance when required, and in his later years, 

 when less capable of making excursions in the field, which were 

 his delight in his younger days, he was no less usefully employed 

 in our service by the eff'orts he made in promoting the arrange- 

 ment of our collection. From his earliest days his tastes had led 

 him to the cultivation of mineralogy and the study of rocks, and 

 it was from this point of view that his aid was so valuable in 

 re-arranging the numerous collection of rock-specimens in our 

 Museum, 



Mr. HoENER was born in Edinburgh, on the 17th of January, 

 1785. He was the son of Mr. John Horner, a prosperous merchant 

 and linen manufacturer in that city, and the younger brother of 

 Francis Horner, whose early death was so dej)lored by all who knew 

 him, and who, having begun life as a lawyer at the English bar, had 

 given such promise of intellectual powers as to justify his friends 

 in anticipating for him a successful public career. Leonard 

 Horner, on the other hand, ever showed from his earliest youth 

 a decided preference for scientific pursuits, and at an early age 

 attended the lectures of Prof. Playfair on Mathematics, and of 

 Dugald Stewart on Moral Philosophy, and in November 1802 he 

 entered as a student Dr. Hope's class of Chemistry. From that 

 time his scientific tastes developed themselves ; he took a particular 

 interest in Mineralogy, began to make a collection of specimens, 

 cultivated the acquaintance of his fellow students who had the 

 same turn of mind, and studied Playfair's ' Illustration of the 

 Huttonian Theory.' 



