Yol. 55.] ANNIVEESARY ADDKESS OP THE PEESIDENT. liu 



THE ANITIYEESAEY ADDEESS OF THE PEESIDENT, 

 William Whitakee, B.A., F.E.S. 



Having fulfilled the pleasant part of my duties, I have now to 

 enter on the sad part, to note our losses during the past year. In 

 this, precedence will be given to Foreign Members and CorrespondentSj 

 of whom we have lost six. 



"Wilhelm Baekim Dames was born in 1843, and was educated 

 at the University of Breslau, where he took his doctor's degree 

 with a thesis on the Devonian Beds of Freiburg, in Lower Silesia. 

 He then went to the University of Berlin, where he worked to the 

 end of his life, becoming Professor of Geology and Palaeontology. 



His chief work was palseontological, on Echinoidea, Crustacea, and 

 more particularly Yertebrata, on all of which he did valuable work 

 relating to various formations. To him we are largely indebted for 

 a knowledge of that remarkable fossil the Archceopteryx. 



He investigated the Silurian strata of Gothland for the purpose of 

 establishing the source of the Silurian rocks in the gravels of the 

 North German plain, a subject on which he did much work. 



Since 1885 he had been one of the editors of the Xeues Jahrbuch. 

 He was elected a Foreign Correspondent of this Society in 1891, and 

 a Foreign Member in 1895. He died on December 22nd, 1898.^ 



Gael Wilhelm, Eitter voi^- Giimbel, was born on February 11th, 

 1823, at Dannenfels, in the Bavarian Ehenish Palatinate, and was 

 the youngest of nine brothers. 



He published his first paper, ' Geognostic Observations on the 

 Donnersberg,' in 1846, and this attracted the attention of Yon 

 Dechen, who thereafter always remained his friend. 



In 1848 he passed with distinction the State mining examination 

 at Munich, and began practical work at the Colliery of St. Ingbert. 

 Soon after he found employment in that district as surveyor, and 

 then came the turning-point in his career. The Bavarian authorities 

 agreed to start a Geological Survey, and in 1851 Gumbel was called 

 to Munich to take part therein as chief geologist. 



He carried out, almost single-handed, the survey of the Bavarian 

 Alps, publishing the results in 1861, in a large volume, with 

 maps. Meanwhile he had obtained his doctor's degree, and, in 

 1863, was made Honorary Professor of Geognosy and Surveying at 

 the University, while in 1868 he was entrusted with the lectures 



1 See also the notice by E. Tietze, Yerh. k.-k. geol. Eeichsanst. 1898, 

 pp. 408-410. 



