XXIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



published at Philadelphia in 1848. It contains a general geographi- 

 cal and geological account of all kinds of coal, illustrated by maps 

 and sections, together with statements drawn from official reports, of 

 the production, consumption, and commercial distribution of coal in 

 all those countries in which it is chiefly produced. To this work 

 Mr. Taylor devoted latterly a large portion of his time. It contains 

 an immense amount of valuable and carefully arranged statistical 

 knowledge on the subject, not to be found in any other work. 



Mr. Richard Phillips, Chemist and Curator of the Museum of 

 Practical Geology, died on the 1 Itli of May, in the seventy-third year 

 of his age. Throughout a long series of years he prosecuted the 

 study of Chemistry with great success, and made numerous contri- 

 butions on that subject to various scientific societies and periodicals. 

 In early life he was the intimate friend of Davy and Wollaston, and 

 though never professing to devote much time to the study of Geology, 

 he was one of the original founders of our Society. During the last 

 two years he was President of the Chemical Society. 



I have also to record the death of Mr. Vandercomb. In con- 

 ducting the aifairs of the Society during a critical period, the Coun- 

 cil found him on several occasions a willing and judicious adviser. 

 His legal ability and experience were placed gratuitously at their dis- 

 posal ; and I may mention, not onl}' for the information of our own 

 body, but for that of several kindred societies younger than our own, 

 that it was through his instrumentality that we were enabled to obtain 

 from the Crown a charter of incorporation less complex in its details 

 and more liberal in its provisions than had previously been granted 

 to any other scientific institution. 



Gentlemen, — In the wide range which geology now presents to 

 us, it has not been without some perplexity that I have determined 

 on the form of the Annual Address which I am now called upon to 

 make to you. The more frequent precedent afforded by similar 

 addresses would suggest a general analysis or review of what has 

 been done, especially in our own Society, during the past year ; and 

 this appears to me one obvious and useful object of such addresses. 

 At the same time T think it right that each of your Presidents in 

 succession should judge for himself as to the manner in which he 

 may best fulfil his mission, and adopt that course which he may feel 

 himself capable of rendering most subservient to the progress of our 

 science. You will recollect that during the past year we have been 

 much occupied in discussing the superficial accumulations now gene- 

 rally designated as *' Drift." Our Quarterly Journal of the past year 

 contains a considerable number of papers, and some elaborate ones, 

 bearing more or less immediately upon it. It is a branch of our 

 science, too, which has been making of late great progress, but in 

 which much yet remains to be done before we arrive at a complete 

 knowledge of the phaenomena, and those sound theoretical Tiews 

 which may command something like unity of assent. For these 



