XXV1U PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



published his observations on the emanations of carbonic acid gas in 

 the district of the Eifel and adjoining lands, and his treatises on hot 

 and thermal springs and on a natural history of volcanos. In later 

 years he has shown how all theories on metamorphism, and how the 

 justice of the application of that term, must be tested by the strict 

 laws of chemical action; and he is constantly referred to as an 

 authorit} r by those whose attention is directed to that most obscure 

 and most difficult subject. 



Award of the Wollaston Donation-fund. 



The President next addressed Sir Roderick Murchison, as the 

 representative of Professor Senft, as follows : — 



Sir Roderick Murchison, — Into your hands I now deliver the 

 balance of the Wollaston Fund, and the diploma of our Society to 

 that effect, with the request that you will cause them to be con- 

 veyed to your old and valued friend Professor Ferdinand Senft, of 

 Eisenach, with the assurance that the Geological Society of London 

 have specially conferred this honour upon him to testify their sense 

 of the value of his work in the difficult subject of the classification 

 of rocks, as shown in his late publication entitled ' Classification 

 und Beschreibung der Felsarten,' and also in the hope that it may 

 prove useful in enabling him still further to prosecute his important 

 researches. 



Sir Roderick replied in the following manner : — 



Mr. President, — You have well brought forward the main grounds 

 on which the Council has awarded the Wollaston Fund to Professor 

 Senft. On my own part I beg to say that this award has given to 

 me, and all my associates who are acquainted with that excellent 

 man, the most sincere pleasure. From visiting, accompanied by 

 himself, the environs of his residence at Eisenach, some of us have 

 formed a true admiration of his labours as a field-geologist, as well 

 as of his powers as an author of valuable works on classification. 



As Dr. Senft obtains only a very small pecuniary requital for his 

 zealous labours in teaching a large school, the pupils of which receive 

 good lessons from him in our science, our assistance, small as it is, 

 will, I know, be useful in enabling him to carry out with increased 

 vigour his scientific researches, the last of which is a work of deep 

 interest to those who are occupied with the study of the recent 

 changes on the surface of the globe, and is entitled ' Die Humus-, 

 Marsch-, Torf- und Limonitbildungen, als Erzeugungsmittel neuer 

 Erdrindelagen,' or an inquiry into the nature and origin of peat- 

 and turf- accumulations, and their relations to the newer geological 

 formations. 



As this donation is accompanied by a diploma, signed by you, Sir, 

 as our President, my friend Dr. Senft will, I am sure, consider that 

 by this act we confer an honour upon him which, I feel confident, he 

 will highly value and most gratefully acknowledge. 



