6 ANNIVEESAET ADDKESS. 



device of small Committees, who would take iu charge the collec- 

 tion of all matters bearing on any division of the subject for the 

 illustration of which they would be thus specially set apart. 

 The humblest contributor would in this way find his observations 

 not lost, but probably utilized when recorded in what I am glad 

 to fijid has at last been commenced, — viz., the Proceedings of our 

 Society. 



A similar consideration in relation to scientific progress has 

 been expressed by thinkers at Home, in much stronger terms than 

 I have ventured to employ. For instance, a writer in the 

 Geological Magazine for January, 1876, has set before his readers 

 some powerful arguments as to the way in which particular 

 sciences must be cultivated hereafter. As his remarks bear upon 

 some of those just made by myself, and are applicable to other 

 subjects as well, I will quote one or two. " If," says the author, 

 " the geologist wishes now-a-days to increase our general stock of 

 knowledge, he cannot study in detail rock formations and palaeon- 

 tology, nor can he take up palaeontology as a whole ; he must 

 devote himself particularly to one or other of the great classes of 

 animals or to plants whose remains are preserved to us in a fossil 

 state." 



" The testimony of a man who would undertake to name a 

 collection of igneous rocks, and at the same time undertake the 

 identification of a series of fossil bones, shells, corals, or other 

 organic remains, would be received with a certain amount of 

 caution." 



Again, "As an illustration, one would be surprised to hear that 

 Professor Ramsay was about to describe a new species of fossil 

 bird, or that Professor Huxley had elucidated the stratigraphical 

 relations of the Devonian rocks ; that Professor Prestwich would 

 report on the affinities of Graptolites, or that Mr. Etheridge had 

 undertaken the microscopical examination of igneous rocks. And 

 yet each one would naturally be acquainted with the general 

 results of study in each department of geology." 



