﻿Vol. 64.] ANNIVERSAEY ADDBE8S OF THE PBBSIDENT. CXXUi 



the purpose which I had in view. Our memories are short and our 

 time for reading the literature of the past is sometimes scanty 

 enough ; so that, in the hurry and bustle of the active scientific 

 work of our own day, we are apt to lose sight of what has been 

 achieved by our predecessors. It is well, however, that we should 

 realize how much has been done by them to prepare the paths 

 along which we have ourselves been able to advance. More 

 especially is a retrospect of this kind incumbent upon the members 

 of such a corporate body as that whose Anniversary we celebrate 

 to-day. The Geological Society, after a hundred years of strenuous 

 service, has gained an honourable place among the scientific insti- 

 tutions of the world. We are all proud to belong to it. Our pride, 

 however, should spring not merely from a consciousness of the 

 reputation which the Society holds in the outer world, but also 

 from our own personal knowledge of the grounds upon which that 

 reputation has been gained. We owe it as a duty to the Society 

 and to ourselves, from time to time to peruse the writings of 

 those who have gone before us, and this not with regard only 

 to branches of investigation which we may have made specially 

 our own. Such an association with the works of the early masters 

 of our science cannot but increase our loyalty and affection for 

 the Society which they founded and fostered. 



A more intimate acquaintance with the writings of our pre- 

 decessors than is usually thought to be sufficient for all modern 

 purposes may be urged on further grounds. It will lead us to 

 a better appreciation of the successive phases through which our 

 science has passed in its progress to its present position, and will 

 thus broaden our own outlook over the domain of knowledge which 

 has now been conquered. We may find, every here and there, 

 germinal ideas which have remained unnoticed, but which may 

 indicate fresh lines of enquiry, to be pursued in the clearer light 

 of modern research. We may even now and then discover that 

 observations, which we fondly believed had been first made by 

 ourselves, were noted and published ere we were born, or that 

 generalizations, of which we were disposed to claim the authorship, 

 were really suggested by others. The increase of greater facilities 

 for the speedy dissemination of new facts and discoveries has in our 

 time fostered a tendency towards premature publication. Haste 

 to secure priority, which was unknown in the leisurely days of 

 our forefathers, has grown apace in recent years. The hurried 

 preparation of papers is apt to beget careless composition, and 



