ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 147 



The vacancy in our list of Foreign Members (so wisely restricted 

 to a limited number) occasioned by the death of Signor Monticelli, 

 you have worthily filled up by the election of M. Dubois de Mont- 

 pereux of Neuchatel, whose merits as a geologist are of the highest 

 order, as he has fully shown in his great work on the Caucasus and 

 the adjacent lands. But it is unnecessary for me to dwell on his 

 just claims to the honour you have conferred on him, for you will 

 find them ably set forth by Sir R. Murchison in his Anniversary 

 Address of 1843*. 



When we review the year that has passed, we have the satisfac- 

 tion of feeling that the science we cultivate has made some import* 

 ant steps in advance, and that our Society maintains itself in undi- 

 minished vigour. Our pursuits become more and more objects of 

 interest among all educated classes ; and the works of some of our 

 present most active Members have largely contributed to make 

 geological inquiries attractive to those higher minds which recoil 

 from vague unsubstantial speculations^ and to the establishment of 

 the sound philosophical views in the history of the earth's structure, 

 which have raised Geology to the rank of an exact science in some 

 of its most important fundamental truths. 



We have had no meeting without some valuable communication, 

 nor without instructive conversations on the subjects of the papers 

 read. I regret that, in those discussions, our younger Members do 

 not more frequently take a part ; I do not doubt that they are in- 

 fluenced by a desire of rather listening to those they look up to as 

 the established authorities, the great doctors of our laws, whose 

 opinions we are accustomed to hear delivered to our great benefit 

 on those occasions ; but I am sure I speak the sentiments of all the 

 senior Members when I say, that nothing would give them greater 

 pleasure than to see those coming forward who are to constitute the 

 future life and strength of the Society. 



Library and Museum. 



By the financial statements in the Council's report you have 

 learned, that, after providing amply for the salaries of our offi- 

 cers and the other branches of ordinary expenditure, and after 

 setting aside a considerable sum to be laid out on our Library, the 

 Council will have at their disposal a large surplus, to be expended 

 on publications, the way of all others by which the Society can 

 render most service to the science we cultivate. The improvements 

 which have been made in our Library during the last year, and the 

 excellent classed Catalogue of our books and maps prepared by our 

 Vice-Secretary, which may very shortly be in the possession of 

 every Fellow, and the first five sheets of which are now on your 

 table, will render that part of our establishment far more valuable 

 than it has hitherto been, and will lay open treasures which few of 

 the Fellows, probably, are aware that they possess. 

 * Proceedings of the Geol. See. iv. 108. 



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