Xl PllOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



work he endeavours judiciously to describe and explain phenomena 

 without having recourse to the extreme views of either Werner or 

 Hutton, between whose rival schools the controversy at that time 

 ran high. In the 'Edinburgh Philosophical Journal' and in the 

 * Bibliotheque Universel ' he published views on mineralogy which 

 he afterwards gave to the world, in 1835, under the title of " Le 

 Regne Mineral ramene aux methodes do I'Histoii'e Natiu-elle." In 

 this work he avoided the extreme views of previous authors, who had 

 ascribed too great importance exclusively to external properties or 

 to mere composition, and in a series of analytical tables conferred a 

 great boon on tho student working practically at the discrimination 

 of minerals. 



THE ANNIVEESAEY ADDEESS. 

 By Pkof. T. H. Huxley, Sec.G.S., &c., &c. 



Merchants occasionally go through a wholesome, though trouble- 

 some and not always satisfactory, process which they term " taking- 

 stock." After all the excitement of speculation, the jDleasure of 

 gain, and the pain of loss, the trader makes up his mind to face facts 

 and to learn the exact quantity and quality of his solid and reliable 

 possessions. 



The man of science does well sometimes to imitate this procedure ; 

 and, forgetting for tho time the importance of his own small win- 

 nings, to re-examine the common stock in trade, so that he may 

 make sure how far the store of bullion in the cellar — on the faith of 

 whose existence so much paper has been circulating—is really the 

 solid gold of truth. 



The Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society seems to be 

 an occasion woU suited for an undertaldng of this kind — for an in- 

 quiry, in fact, into the natiu'o and the value of the present results 

 of pala^ontological investigation ; and the more so, as all those who 

 have paid close attention to the late multitudinous discussions, in 

 which palocontology is implicated, must have felt the urgent neces- 

 sity of some such scrutiny. 



First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the 

 results of palaeontology, must be mentioned the immense extension 

 and impidsc given to botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy 

 by the investigation of fossil remains. Indeed, the mass of biological 

 facts has been so greatly increased, and the range of biological 

 speculation has been so vastly widened, by the researches of the 

 geologist and palaeontologist, that it is to be feared there are 

 naturalists in existence who look upon geology as Brindley re- 

 garded rivers. *' lUvcrs," said the great engineer, *'wcro made to 

 iced canals;" and geology, some seem to think, was solely created 

 to advance comparative anatomy, 



