ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxxi 



I trust what I have said will be deemed sufficient as affording an 

 ample proof of the great and varied abilities of our deceased member, 

 whose zeal and energy in the prosecution of his favourite science was 

 such that Mr. Prestwich has estimated that he walked no less than 

 15000 miles whilst examining the geology of Belgium ; for it was 

 his rule to form his judgment entirely upon his own observations. 

 He is gone » but his great labours will never be forgotten, and his 

 excellent social qualities will be long and affectionately remembered. 



M. P. A.Dufeenoy was born on the 5th September, 1792, and was 

 therefore sixty-five years of age at the time of his lamented death. His 

 mother, Madame Dufrenoy, was a lady of great literary acquirements 

 and a poetess of considerable eminence, having founded her style upon 

 classic models, the native language of Virgil and Horace being fa- 

 miliar to her. Amongst other works she wrote a poem on the last 

 moments of Bayard ; and its beauty merited and obtained the appro- 

 bation of the French Academy, by which distinguished body it was 

 crowned. This excellent woman, at a time when she had long 

 suffered from illness, wrote the following touching lines, commemo- 

 rative at once of her feelings of affection, and of her confidence in 

 the future fame of her beloved son : — 



" Oui, mon fils, oui, ma noble idole, 

 De mon ete qui fuit, ton printemps me console. 

 Eh ! comment du passe garder le souvenir, 

 Quand les males vertus de ton adolescence, 

 Et tes savants travaux, suivis avec Constance, 

 Repondent de ton avenir ! " 



The recollection of this highly-gifted mother was always fondly 

 cherished by her son, who was never weary of dwelling upon her 

 high qualities as a wife and mother. Nor was he less fortunate in 

 his marriage, as his wife, a daughter of M. Jay, was a fitting com- 

 panion for such a man, and, after bestowing the necessary maternal 

 cares on her three sons, of whom she was justly proud, was ever 

 ready to assist her husband in his labours by correcting proofs, by 

 translating works written in foreign languages, or by making draw- 

 ings as illustrations of his own works. This amiable woman sur- 

 vives her husband, and must be an object of admiration and of 

 respect to all men of science. 



In 1803 M. Dufrenoy was a schoolfellow of M. Valenciennes, the 

 celebrated ichthyologist, at the Lyceum of Eouen, where both the 

 young friends acquired a taste for the study of the natural sciences ; 

 and, although they cultivated different branches, were often in com- 

 munication with each other on scientific subjects, and finally became 

 colleagues at the Museum of Natural History, and fellow members 

 of the Academy of Sciences. Having completed his literary and 



again discussed by one of our greatest and most philosophical geologists, Sir 

 Charles Lyell, who considers the elevation-theory as untenable. This is not 

 the place to enter into a discussion of his facts or arguments ; but I may ven- 

 ture to say, that the force which was sufficient to raise the semi-liquid lava to a 

 great height, and there to erupt it, must have been also sufficient to fissure and 

 uplift the consolidated crust of the earth. — J. E. P. 



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