ANNIVERSARY MEETING. M'^OLLASTON MEDALS. XXI 



regard the awards of these medals as the expression of this feehng, 

 and of the high sense we entertain of the services which they have 

 rendered to geological science. 



Sir Roderick Murchison replied in these words : — 



Sir, — Being charged by my friends M. d'Archiac and M. de 

 Verneuil to receive for them the Wollaston Medals which the 

 Council of the Geological Society has awarded to them, I have to 

 return to you their warmest thanks, and to express the gratitude 

 they feel for having been honoured by a distinction which is justly 

 so much prized by geologists of all nations. 



They also beg me to state, that each of them is deeply touched 

 by the delicacy of that sentiment by which the Council has not 

 shown any preference of one over the other labourer. For what- 

 ever, Sir, may be the amount to which jealousies extend in other 

 departments of science, it rejoices me to recognize the absence of 

 this feeling among geologists ; and allow me to say, that if ever there 

 were two persons of our craft completely exempt from such a passion, 

 they are the men whom you have just honoured ; — their only 

 rivalry having been shown in efforts, whether made conjointly or 

 independently, by which they have advanced our common science. 



The extent to which they have done so has been so clearly stated 

 by yourself, that I have only to thank you for having perfectly 

 delineated the nature of merits with vi^hich most of our associates 

 are well acquainted. 



And here let me explain why our Medallists are not present ; now 

 that the Channel is, as it is said, " bridged by steam." Easy as the 

 transit may seem to Englishmen, M. d'Archiac assures me, that the 

 " maladie de mer " which he suffered on the only occasion on 

 which he encountered it, to inspect our cliffs and natural sections, 

 was very great ; but great as it might have been, he would have 

 braved it, even at this inclement season, had he not been deeply 

 engaged in the last pages of a work on the Nummulites of India, in 

 which a general view will be taken of the eocene rocks of the East, 

 and specially of the genera and species of those Foraminifera, all 

 over the world, — a work which I trust every English geologist and 

 palaeontologist will procure ; for in it, M. d'ilrchiac is, I know, 

 describing and beautifully illustrating the fossils so largely collected 

 by our countryman and contemporary. Major Vicary, in Beloochistan, 

 the Punjaub, and the flanks of the Himalaya. 



As to my valued friend and fellow-traveller, M. de Verneuil, he 

 would certainly have been present had not an event occurred in the 

 last ten days which has entirely checked his purpose. Though often 

 before now urged by his friends to solicit the place of Member in 

 the Institute of France, M. de Verneuil has hitherto refused. 

 Recently, however, the place of a free member having fallen vacant, 

 he was persuaded to allow himself to be put in nomination. 



Even on this occasion his modesty would have induced him to 

 retire from a conflict singularly painful to him, from the circumstance 

 that according to the habits of his country he must personally 



