1 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETr. [JuTlC 1912^ 



hardly anything has proved to be inaccurate or of secondary 

 importance. The bent of his mind towards the theoretical 

 problems of optical mineralogy was further exemplified by his work 

 on the Felspars, which is the most widely used of all his books. 

 The Prench school of mineralogists, including Mallard and Dos- 

 cloizeaux, had always excelled in this department, and Michel-Levy 

 as a petrographer adapted and completed the application of their 

 work to the study of the minerals of rocks. It is principally 

 owing to his work and to that of Fouque that w^e are now in 

 possession of means of determining even the smallest felspars in a 

 rock-slide with great precision ; and the elegance of his methods 

 is a delight to every modern petrographer. 



At no period did he do much descriptive petrography, and his 

 principal contribution to the systematics of the science is embodied 

 in his ' Structure et Classification des Eoches Eruptives ' (1889). 

 As the recognized leader of the French school he laid down 

 principles of classification in that work which are still regarded 

 as authoritative in France, although, owing to the present un- 

 certain state of rock-classification in general, they can hardly be- 

 accepted as final. 



He was the recipient of many honours from scientific men, both 

 in his own country and abroad. This Society elected him a Foreign 

 Correspondent in 1889 and a Foreign Member in 1893. In 1892 

 he was made President of the Geological Society of France, and in 

 1887 he received the Prix Yiquesnel of that Society. A man of 

 singular courtesy, he was exceedingly helpful to all young geologists^ 

 and especially to the members of the Service de la Carte Geologique, 

 who were devotedly attached to him. For several years he had 

 not added to the list of his published works, but it is understood 

 that he w^as engaged in editing for publication the lectures which 

 he delivered to the College de France. His health, formerly robust, 

 had failed of recent years, but to the last he continued to take a 

 great interest both in his scientific and in his administrative work. 



[J. S. J?.] 



Monsieur Edotjard Dfpont, Honorary Director of the Royal 

 Museum of Natural History in Brussels, was born on January 

 31st, 1841, and died on March 31st, 1911, aged seventy years. 

 He Avas elected a Foreign Correspondent of the Geological Society 

 in 1879 and a Foreign Member in 1897. His earliest work 

 to which he frequently returned later in his life, concerned the 



