Clvi PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



been favoured by the Directors of that body with the perusal of 

 many of the geological papers published under their auspices ; and I 

 can confidently state that a judicious selection from the work per- 

 formed, which the recent institution of an establishment similar to 

 our Museum of Practical Geology will hereafter secure, was alone 

 wanting : and I cannot but therefore express a hope that, should 

 the changes which are now the subject of public conversation and 

 discussion be carried out, care may be taken that the interests of 

 geological and other sciences will not be overlooked, but that the 

 example of activity and judicious management which the Direct- 

 ors are now exhibiting in that direction may be followed by their 

 successors*. 



Many of the reciprocal connections of the several branches of the 

 science are discussed in an able Report on the prize for physical sciences 

 for 1856, by MM. Elie de Beaumont, Fleurens, Is. Geoffrey Saint- 

 Hilaire, Milne-Edwards, and Ad. Brongniart, in which the general 

 views of palseontological science, as nowgenerally entertained, are well 

 explained, as well as the connexion which must exist between the 

 organic and physical changes in order to produce one uniform and 

 harmonious system. For example, "the study of mountainous 

 countries has shown that the presence of fossil bodies on the most 

 elevated points may be explained by the elevation of those moun- 

 tains, in a more simple manner than by the depression of the 

 waters of the sea : and hence has arisen the theory of the successive 

 lifting up of mountains, which owes to M. Elie de Beaumont its 

 principal development, but which, whilst it determines, with the 

 contained fossils, the successive epochs of formation, does not ex- 

 plain the mode of creation, which still is, and probably must ever 

 remain, a mystery. The treatise presented for the prize was one by 

 the well-known Bronn, who, aided by his long experience, and taking 

 advantage of the published labours of other eminent palaeontologists, 

 submitted classified lists of about 30,000 species of animal and vege- 

 table fossils, distributed amongst 25 or 30 distinct epochs of creation. 

 This expression naturally leads to the discussion of the theoretical 

 views connected with it, or those views which are taken of the fact 

 (which cannot be disputed), that at successive epochs lived distinct 

 and successive forms of organized creatures. The mode, however, in 

 which the changes of organic beings have been effected is a subject 

 of fair speculation." Nor can any discussion do harm so long as 

 disputants will remember that they are only dealing with a question 

 of probability, not one of mathematical accuracy. Of the two great 

 modes of accounting for the successive changes in the fauna of the 

 world, advocated by those who maintain the invariability of species, 

 the one advocated by Agassiz is, that all the organic bodies which 

 existed on the earth at any one epoeh were simultaneously destroyed, 

 and replaced by a totally different group. The other, advocated by 

 Bronn, is that only a part of the population of the earth, varying in 



* These changes have been carried into effect ; but geologists will feel at ease 

 when they observe that Sir Proby Cautley has been appointed a member of the 

 New Council of India. 



