ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. IxxXi 



exceptions that we may safely wait with confidence for the explana- 

 tion of the seeming anomalies during the course of the progress of 

 research. 



Now there is but one conclusion that can be drawn from these 

 facts, if after being tested with every evidence now known to us they 

 remain intact as our science progresses. This conclusion is to the 

 effect, that the relation between the palaeozoic and neozoic life-assem- 

 blages is one of development in opposite directions, in other words, of 

 Polarity. In the demonstration of this relation it seems to me that 

 we shall, in all probability, discover the secret of the difference be- 

 tween the life anterior to the Trias and the life afterwards. The notion 

 is in some degree a metaphysical one, but not the less capable of sup- 

 port through induction from the facts. I plead for its consideration, 

 believing it to be worthy of earnest inquiry. I know that its novelty 

 and seeming vagueness may repel many when it is thus briefly, and as 

 if in outline, put forth. But before any geologist or naturalist rejects 

 it, I would ask him to study carefully the admirable monographs, 

 written without a bias, of whose merits I have been discoursing in 

 this Address ; to seek out the manifestation of the idea in the first 

 instance in some important and characteristic group of beings about 

 whose time-distribution vfe have now a sufficient knowledge, such an 

 assemblage as the Trilobites described to us in the work of Barrande, 

 or the Brachiopoda as exhibited in the monograph by Davidson ; to 

 take and analyse the ample lists of extinct beings marshalled in the 

 pages of Morris, or in the more general muster-rolls of Bronn and 

 Alcide d'Orbigny ; and then, having done this, to consider earnestly 

 and fairly the idea that I have ventured to suggest of the manifesta- 

 tion of Polarity in Time. 



Gentlemen, since I have occupied this Chair I have heard two re- 

 proaches cast upon our Society, the one that we throw cold water 

 upon theories, and the other that we are opposed to the practical 

 applications of Geology. The fate of the concluding paragraphs of 

 this Address will not, I hope, be confirmatory of this first accusation, 

 one seldom urged against Geologists. As to the second, I believe 

 I speak the sentiments of every working geologist in this Society, 

 when I say that no papers, no discussions within these walls, are heard 

 with more pleasure or received with more approbation than those 

 which have a practical and economic bearing, always providing that 

 sound science and original research constitute their foundation. Em- 

 piricism we eschew and abhor. Solid knowledge, careful observations, 

 and sound scientific theory are as necessary for economic as for un- 

 remunerative geology. During the Session just concluded the various 

 aspects of our science have each had an impartial share of attention. 

 In the Session which is about to commence we have every prospect 

 of holding our forward course in the sound and safe path that the 

 Geological Society of London has chosen from its beginning. 



VOL. X. / 



