XXXVl PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



commendation. He also assisted Prof. Owen in the preparation of 

 that portion of his 'Palaeontology' which comprises the Invertebrata. 

 His health had been gradually declining for the last few years, 

 and he died at Heme Bay, July 11th, 1865. 



Mr. Geoege Roberts was born at Kidderminster, and for upwards 

 of five years held the office of Clerk to this Society, of which he 

 became a Pellow in 1864. He was the author of numerous papers 

 both on geological and other interesting subjects. These he com- 

 municated to the Geological Society, the ' Geological Magazine,' and 

 other periodicals ; many of them showed great talent and boldness in 

 taking up original views. He died at Kidderminster, 20th December, 

 1865. 



We have also to deplore the loss of other Members of the Society, 

 amongst whom I may mention the names of Samuel Cartwright, 

 Col. Sampson, Thomas Young, J. E. Macdonnell, F. W. Simms, 

 W. B. Mitchell, and T. Hutton. 



Amongst the Foreign Members whom we have lost I must men- 

 tion the name of Dr. Christian Pander, who was born at Eiga 

 on the ^Jth July, 1794. He was the son of a wealthy banker. 

 His education was commenced in the Gymnasium of his native 

 town. In 1812 he entered the University of Dorpat to study 

 medicine, but left in 1814, in order, like so many of his countrymen, 

 to complete his education at Berlin and Gottingen. With his great 

 love for natural history he became so engrossed in the study of the 

 preliminary sciences that he never reached the point of practical 

 medicine. He devoted himself to original investigations, and esta- 

 blished a chemical laboratory in his own house. In 1816 he went 

 to Wiirzburg, and there began his remarkable investigations respect- 

 ing the development of the chick in the egg, which led the way 

 to a long series of microscopical investigations respecting the 

 general course of the development of animal bodies. Professors 

 Dollinger and D'Alton were his collaborateurs in this great woA. On 

 its completion he undertook, with Prof. D'Alton, a long journey 

 through Prance, Spain, Holland, and England, principally with 

 the view of visiting the great anatomical museums of Europe, but 

 also for the purpose of collecting marine animals on the sea coast. 

 On his return home Pander was attached as naturalist to the Em- 

 bassy sent to Bokhara in 1820 under the direction of Baron Meyen- 

 dorff. In 1822 he was attached to the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences of St. Petersburg, and in 1823 he became a regular 

 member of it in the zoological branch. While employed in sys- 

 tematically arranging the objects of the zoological collection, he 

 undertook the examination of the geological formations in the neigh- 

 bourhood of St. Petersburg, as well as their fossil remains. He 

 thus became, by his work entitled ' Contributions to the Geognosy 

 of the Russian Empire' (1831), the founder of our knowledge of 

 those formations, now called Silurian, to which Strangways and 



