ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlvii 



versial matter to be inserted in the respective papers of either party. 

 This measure was directed against both authors, and not, as Prof. 

 Sedgwick seems to imagine, solely against himself. The only differ- 

 ence was, that one submitted to the wishes of the Council without a 

 murmur, while the other introduced into all his papers matter of a 

 merely controversial nature. This is the true origin of what is called 

 an ignorant and bitter insult. Does Prof. Sedgwick really believe that 

 there ever sat at the Council Board a single Member who wished to 

 insult him ? But I must in a few words explain what really hap- 

 pened. When the paper of 1852, alluded to in the Supplement 

 (p. xci.), was printed, it was found that matter of a highly controversial 

 nature, which in compliance with the resolution recently come to, 

 ought not to have been printed, had unintentionally been inserted. 

 Sir R,. Murchison immediately claimed a right to reply, and gave 

 notice of a paper to that effect. The Council at once saw the con- 

 sequences which would ensue from such a course, and, wishing to 

 adhere to what they believed to be a wise and prudent line of conduct, 

 they resolved, as the least of two evils, to recal or cancel that portion of 

 the paper which had been printed in contravention of the rule they 

 had laid down. Surely no man should have looked upon such a pro- 

 ceeding as an ignorant and bitter insult. 



I must also correct Prof. Sedgwick's memory when he says in the 

 next page, that the Council refused to publish his next paper in 

 \S^3. It is true he makes no complaint. He admits that part of 

 it was in a controversial form. But I must remind Prof. Sedgwick 

 that it was only the conclusion, viz. the controversial portion, which 

 the Council objected to publish; the body of the paper would have 

 been duly printed ; and when I wrote to inform him of this decision, 

 and to request his sanction to the suppression of the latter portion, the 

 reply which I received was to the effect that he could give no answer 

 until he had seen the paper again, and judged of the effect of the in- 

 tended omission. I directed the paper to be forwarded to him, and 

 after waiting many months for a reply, the only intimation I received 

 of his intention was finding it already printed in another journal. 

 Such a proceeding was in the highest degree irregular. The paper 

 was the property of the Society, and Prof. Sedgwick, an old President 

 of the Society, must have knovm that he had no right to make such 

 use of it without having first obtained the sanction of the Council to 

 its withdrawal. I omit all further allusion to the matter contained 

 in the Introduction and its Supplement. I deeply regret that I have 

 been compelled to say so much in justification of the proceedings of 

 your Council. I will only add, with regard to the work itself, that 

 it is impossible to speak too highly of its arrangement, or of the 

 scientific description of the fossils themselves, or of the beautiful 

 plates by which it is illustrated. 



At the last meeting of the British Association at Glasgow, Sir 

 Roderick Murchison read an interesting paper " On the Relations of 

 the Crystalline Rocks of the North Highlands to the Old Red Sand- 

 stone of that Region, and on the recent fossil discoveries of Mr. C. 

 Peach." Avaihng himself of his leisure hours during the last summer 



