﻿ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXIX 



since published, " On the Origin of Species," which, though di- 

 stinct and independent, have a close connexion with the theories 

 which Professor Bronn has treated with so much ability. 



Mr. Hamilton replied as follows : — 



Mr. President, — It is with great satisfaction that I receive at your 

 hands the Medal which has been awarded to Professor Bronn by 

 the Council; and I shall have much pleasure in forwarding it to 

 my learned and distinguished friend, with whom I have been inti- 

 mately acquainted for many years, and whom I have always found 

 willing to impart his information in the kindest and most liberal 

 manner. You, Sir, have so fully expatiated on the merits of 

 Professor Bronn, that it is unnecessary for me to occupy the time of 

 the meeting in saving more on that subject ; I shall therefore con- 

 fine my observations to a brief notice of what Professor Bronn has 

 written to me in the letters in which he requested me to receive the 

 Medal for him. 



In the first place, he has requested me to express his thanks to the 

 Council for the great honour done to him by this award — an honour 

 all the more remarkable in consideration of the many other distin- 

 guished individuals whose names were brought forward as candidates 

 on this occasion. He then observes, with regret, that he has no 

 practical field for his geological and palaeontological exertions. He 

 cannot travel and make discoveries ; he has not even the use of a 

 public collection ; and he is restricted to his own means, and these 

 are small. He trusts that, by his publication of the ' Index Pala?- 

 ontologicus, and ' Lethaea Geognostica,' he has given to others some 

 assistance in prosecuting more extensive studies ; and finally he ob- 

 serves that he has laid down the results of his own studies, in two 

 works, one of which obtained the prize offered by the French 

 Academy ; the other, entitled ' The Gradual Progress of Organic 

 Life, from the Bock Islands of the Ocean to the Continents,' is an 

 Appendix to the " Law of the Terripetal Development of Organic 

 Life in Geological Time," which he had established in the above- 

 mentioned Prize Essay. I may add that, as the result of these laws, 

 one of which is dependent on the outward conditions of existence, 

 and the other is the effect of an independent creative force, Professor 

 Bronn has endeavoured to show that in proportion as, first rocky 

 islets, then groups of islands, mountain-chains, and finally large 

 continents were raised above the level of the sea, a corresponding 

 progression of organic life from less to more perfect forms was 

 gradually called into existence. 



In conclusion, I will only say, Sir, that, while again expressing 

 Professor Bronn's sincere thanks for the distinguished but (as he 

 says) unexpected honour which has been conferred upon him by the 

 Council, I shall take the earliest opportunity of forwarding to him 

 this mark of the Council's approbation of the eminent services 

 which he has rendered to geological investigation. 



