ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXV 



imbued with a love for the science he had taught them. His 

 popular writings, of which ' The Wonders of Geology ' and the 

 ' Medals of Creation ' are among the more useful, had a wide 

 circulation, and are held in high esteem by general readers. The 

 works just mentioned have a considerable reputation on the con- 

 tinent as well as in England, and have been translated into Ger- 

 man. One of them, the ' Medals of Creation,' is almost the only 

 book in the English language, in which a general survey of the 

 extent of the fossil world, and an interesting outline of British 

 palseontology, can be met with. No fewer than sixty-seven works 

 and memoirs, of various degrees of length and importance, are 

 enumerated in the ' Bibliographia Zoologiee et Geologise ' as having 

 proceeded from his pen. These are all upon diiferent subjects of 

 geological or natural history interest ; but besides these, he wrote 

 not a few antiquarian papers, and some professional disquisitions 

 of value. 



For many years Dr. Mantell endured severe illness and excruciating 

 bodily pain, owing to a spinal disease, the result of an accident. But 

 no torture could destroy his love for science, and his energetic pursuit 

 of geological research. Almost to the hour of his death he was 

 actively occupied with scientific investigations. When once absorbed 

 in an important inquiry, he spared neither expense nor pains in his 

 pursuit after the truth, and, by his enthusiastic and glowing descrip- 

 tions of his progress, excited all v/ith whom he came in contact to 

 assist in the work. 



Dr. Mantell died in his sixty-fourth year. 



We have also to regret the death of our excellent Treasurer, 

 Mr. Prevost, who died at Geneva on the 4th of last November. He 

 was born at that place the 27th of June, 1796, and was originally 

 intended by his father. Professor Prevost, for literary or scientific 

 occupations ; but political events appear to have led to his coming 

 over to this country in 1814, to devote himself to commercial pursuits. 

 In 1818 he was appointed Vice-Consul of the Swiss Confederation in 

 London, and, in 1830, succeeded his brother, Mr. Alex. Prevost, in 

 the office of Consul General. In commercial life, his simplicity, 

 integrity, and delicate feeling of honour, placed him in the highest 

 estimation. In the promotion and early establishment of railvA'ays, 

 he took an active and influential part, and was for many years a 

 Director of the North-Western Railway. He was one of the Council 

 of University College, an Ilonorary Member of the Society of Arts 

 at Geneva, and many years a Fellow of this Society, of which he was 

 made Treasiirer in 1843. 



Though diverted at an early period of his life from any systematic 

 cultivation of literature and science, he always preserved, in the midst 

 of more active pursuits, his natural taste for them. In private life, 

 his unaffected simplicity of character and amiable manners rendered 

 him very much beloved. We know how much he was valued by his 

 intimate friends in this country ; and a short obituary notice of him 

 in the Journal de Geneve, written by Professor de la Rive in a tone 



