AIS^NIVEKSAEY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 39 



and its facts were handled by a master in science : it proved the 

 possibility of deciphering the physical history of the earth, even as 

 its life-history was being reconstructed by the inductive labours 

 of the palaeontologist ; so that vrc might hope to behold with our 

 mental vision not only the strange forms which in long-past days had 

 tenanted its waters and had moved upon its lands, but also the 

 shores and the currents of its seas, the ridges and perhaps the moun- 

 tains of its continents. 



Thomas "Wright was born at Paisley, in Eenfrewshire, on Novem- 

 ber 9, 1809, and educated at the Grammar School in that town. 

 After completing his articles with a surgeon, he enteredas a student in 

 the Royal College of Surgeons at Dublin, and was soon distinguished 

 for his proficiency in anatomical and physiological studies ; these, 

 however, were interrupted by the injurious effect of a dissecting wound. 

 This obliged him to decline an appointment which offered a prospect 

 of a scientific career. After his restoration to health, he passed the 

 College of Surgeons in the year 1832 and shortly afterwards entered 

 upon the duties of his profession at Cheltenham, graduating as Doctor 

 of Medicine at St. Andrews in 1864. His life was spent in active 

 work, professional and scientific, in this pleasant Gloucestershire 

 watering-place, where he held various appointments, among them 

 that of Surgeon to the General Hospital. But the duties of his pro- 

 fession were not incompatible with an energetic pursuit of science. 

 At first he devoted much time to microscopic work, but as this 

 threatened to injure his eyesight, he turned his attention to palaeon- 

 tology. For this study the neighbourhood of his home then offered 

 exceptional facilities, the numerous shallow excavations, many of 

 comparatively ancient date, affording opportunities to the collector 

 which can never again occur. Dr. Wright thus amassed a magnifi- 

 cent collection of Jurassic Echinoaermata and Cephalopoda, which, I 

 regret to learn, has not found a resting-place in his own country. 

 He published several papers on the former Order in the ' Proceedings 

 of the Cotteswold Pield-Club' and the ^Annals and ITagazine of 

 Natural History/ which attracted the attention of Professor Edward 

 Eorbes. Before long it was arranged that, while the latter under- 

 took to describe for the Palaeontographical Society the British Creta- 

 ceous and Tertiary Echinodermata, Dr. W^right should do the same 

 with the Jurassic. But the premature death of Eorbes before he 

 had commenced upon the Cretaceous Echinodermata, caused the 

 Council of the Palaeontographical Society to request Dr. Wright to 

 undertake an additional labour and carry into effect the purpose thus 

 left incomplete. The description of the Jurassic and Cretaceous 

 Echinodermata occupied him for the greater part of his life, portions 

 of the work appearing from the year 1855 to 1882 ; but in 1878 he 

 commenced a description of the Lias Ammonitidae, which was barely 

 completed at the time of his death. 



Dr. Wright was the author of about thirty-two separate papers on 

 geological subjects, of which seven were contributed to our Journal; 

 but the volumes above mentioned are the great work of his life and 



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