XXVI PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the elucidation of fossil species ; and with reference to this subject, 

 they cannot speak too highly of the assistance M. Deshayes has 

 rendered to the British Museum in arranging and correcting the no- 

 menclature of a considerable portion of the Bivalves in that collection, 

 and by preparing a catalogue vy^hich has been already partly pub- 

 lished. I have only now to request you to inform M. Deshayes that 

 while the Council regret that the sum which they are enabled to 

 place at his disposal is not of larger amount, they yet trust that he will 

 find in it an assurance of the high estimation in which they hold his 

 labours and his talents, and of the sincere interest they take in his 

 future welfare and prosperity. 



Mr. Prestwich replied as follows : — 



Sir, — It will give me great pleasure to convey, as I am sure it 

 vnW my friend M. Deshayes to receive, the mark of distinction with 

 which the Society has to-day honoured him. I have long known 

 and highly appreciated the deep research and extensive comparisons 

 which M. Deshayes has brought to bear on the study of Tertiary 

 shells, and can bear willing testimony to the kindness with which 

 he is always ready to assist others engaged in similar or collateral 

 inquiries. 



I trust that this evidence of the sympathy with which the Society 

 views M. Deshayes's labours will induce him to persevere in those 

 labours, and to lay before us with as little delay as possible the 

 further results of his extended researches into the fossil Testacea of 

 the Paris Tertiary strata. 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



Gentlj^men, — I now come in the fulfilment of my duty to that 

 part of my task which, necessary as it is, must always be one of the 

 most painful services which your President has to perform. I mean 

 the recalling to your notice the most distinguished Members of the 

 Society whom we have had the misfortune to lose during the pre- 

 ceding year. And I deeply regret that I have to state that our losses 

 during the past year have been unusually great ; great, not only as 

 regards the members we have lost, but more particularly so with 

 reference to the high position, both in the world of science as well as in 

 this Society, held by many of those who have ceased to move among us. 

 It is no small matter to have to record in one year the loss of such 

 men as George Bellas Greenough and Henry De la Beche, the one 

 remarkable for his zealous and faithful attention to the interests of 

 this Society from the very first day of its existence, and the other 

 for his success in founding and permanently establishing what has 

 been justly called the first palace ever raised from the ground in 

 Great Britain which is entirely devoted to the advancement of science. 



George Bellas Greenough was born in 1778, and had con- 

 sequently attained his seventy-seventh year when he died. His 



