ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. XXXIU 



tion of disease which had for years been undermining his constitution 

 again developed itself in Italy, and compelled him to remain at Naples, 

 where an attack of dropsy terminated his long and laborious life on 

 the 2nd of April, 1855. 



But his services to this Society did not cease with his life. By his 

 will he has bequeathed to the Geological Society of London his valuable 

 geological library and that portion of his collection of maps on which 

 he had recorded his geological observations. The number of books and 

 pamphlets comprised in this bequest considerably exceed a thousand 

 volumes, and the maps are contained in upwards of 60 cases. 

 Amongst these are many important works connected with our science 

 which will greatly enhance the value of our library. He liberally 

 accompanied this bequest by a sum of j6500 to enable us to arrange 

 the books and maps in such a manner as to render them most useful 

 and easy of access. 



Let me conclude this imperfect notice with a few additional remarks. 

 No one who has been in the habit of attending our Evening Meetings, 

 in the discussions at which Mr. Greenough ever took an active and 

 important share, can have left this room without admiring the multi- 

 tudinous and varied mass of information which he was enabled to 

 bring to bear on every subject brought under our notice. And, aU 

 though we are here specially called upon to do honour to his memory 

 as a geologist, it must also be borne in mind that Mr. Greenough was 

 a distinguished Fellow of the Boyal Society, and one of the most 

 active supporters of the Royal Geographical and Ethnological 

 Societies. The occupations connected with these two Societies 

 naturally brought him into direct contact and acquaintance with 

 every corner of our globe which had been reached by the inquiries 

 of science or by the pursuits of commerce and of civilization. At 

 the same time, as a member of other important scientific societies, 

 Mr. Greenough had amply availed himself of every opportunity 

 of storing his mind and of enriching his retentive memory with a 

 vast mass of varied information, which he was ever ready to pour 

 forth, in private or in public, on any necessary occasion. And 

 if at times his arguments appeared paradoxical, and he himself dis- 

 posed to be sceptical with regard to newly propounded views and 

 theories, let it never be forgotten that all was done through a sincere 

 desire of truth. Mr. Greenough' s turn of mind was eminently prac- 

 tical, and he was ever reluctant to believe anything that was not 

 capable of being proved. But when once convinced of truth no one 

 was more ready to yield to its conviction. Although long refusing 

 to adopt the new principles of geology founded on palajontological 

 evidence as distinguished from the mineralogical evidence of the older 

 school, he was among the first to form a collection of fossils, and 

 fully admitted the importance and the truth of the geological theories 

 as deduced from the study of fossils and the investigations of palaeon- 

 tology. 



Nor can I omit, in enumerating the merits of Mr. Greenough, to 

 mention that to him we are mainly indebted for the great progress 

 made recently in the science of physical geography, a branch of 



