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ANN 1 VERS AKY ADDKESS Ol' TUE PRESIDENT. 55 



iu life be was enabled to gratify amidst tbe marine fauna of tbe 

 North Sea. He occupied biraself in studying dredgings off tbe 

 Xorthumberland coast and from the Dogger Bank. By degrees he 

 was led to give himself up to the investigation of tbe Foraminifera 

 as bis special life-work, and be became in the end one of our chief 

 authorities on these lowly organisms. 



He published many original and valuable papers on recent forms 

 of Poraminifera, concluding with his great Monograph in the lleports 

 of tbe ' Challenger' Expedition. But of especial interest to us as 

 geologists are bis researches among the fossil forms. It was he who 

 first made known tbe nature of those curious spherical bodies in tbe 

 Carboniferous Limestone which be named Saccammina Carten. It 

 was be, too, who first described tbe nummulite-like Archcediscus 

 from the Lower-Carboniferous rocks of this country, and who showed 

 that a true nummulite (NummuUna) occurs in the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of Belgium presenting tbe most astonishing resemblance 

 in structural detail to its still living allies. He wrote also on tbe 

 Foraminifera of the Crag ; but many of bis papers on the recent forms 

 had important geological bearings, and well merit tbe study of the 

 geologist. 



His father belonged to tbe Society of Friends, and though be 

 himself renounced tbe quaint garb and other outward signs of that 

 body, be retained tbe frank honesty and homely kindliness so 

 characteristic of it. His success in business was such, that in 1876 

 he felt himself able to retire, and to devote himself entirelv to 

 scientific research. But bis health, never robust, sadly interfered 

 with bis progress, and compelled him to winter abroad. He under- 

 took long journeys into milder climes, but carried his love of science 

 with him, and lost no opportunity of increasing bis store of know- 

 ledge, and enlarging bis acquaintance with the subject which be bad 

 made so entirely his own. A happy illustration of tbe way in which 

 be used these opportunities of foreign travel is furnished by tbe only 

 communication he made to this Society — a " Note on tbe so-called 

 • Soapstone ' of Fiji." This is a soft post-Tertiary rock, reaching in 

 one place to 700 feet above tbe sea, in which his practised eye 

 detected 92 species of Foraminifera, 87 of which are still living in 

 the neighbouring seas, and he inferred that tbe deposit accumulated 

 at a depth of 100 to 200 fathoms, so that the sea-floor bad been 

 elevated to at least that amount. 



Mr. Brady became a Fellow of this Society in 1864. He was 

 elected into tbe Royal Society in 1874, and was likewise a Fellow 



VOL. xLvn. e 



