AKN'IYEKSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 47 



illness about two years since, it became evident that his working- 

 days were ended. His mind, however, remained clear to the last, 

 and his interest in geology never flagged. He sufi'ered more from 

 weakness and depression than from actual pain, and awaited the 

 great change in the calm resignation and confident hope of a 

 Christian. 



Though I knew that the end could not be far off, I had hoped 

 that the task of pronouncing this threnody would have fallen to my 

 successor ; for there are times in life when the feelings of the heart 

 are too deep for utterance. Those among us who knew John 

 Morris well, need not be reminded of what a friend we have lost. 

 To none is this loss greater than to myself. For years his kindness 

 to me has been > almost parental. jSTothing that I did or wrote 

 seemed without an interest to him. The main subject of this address 

 was discussed in our last conversation. To the imperfections of ,my 

 work he was more than " a little blind," to whatever good it might 

 possess he was " ever kind." His death has severed one of those 

 ties which can never be formed again on this side of the grave. 



By the death of Henri Milne-Edwards, not only France but 

 also the whole world of science has lost a veteran of the highest 

 rank, a field-marshal in its army. Born at Bruges in the year 

 1800, he early manifested a predilection for science. His father 

 was a Jamaica planter, who in consequence of political troubles 

 quitted that island, and after residing for a time in England settled 

 in Belgium. His mother was an Englishwoman, Elizabeth Yaux, 

 a member of an old family ; and Henri, the second offspring of that 

 union, was the twenty-ninth child of his father, who had been pre- 

 viously married. The latter, though he had suffered severely from 

 the tyranny of the first Empire, afterwards became a naturalized 

 Frenchman, and his son Henri studied medicine at Paris. For a 

 time art and pleasure proved more attractive to the young man 

 than science ; but a loss of fortune summoned him to earnest work. 

 In 1832 he was appointed a Professor at the College Henri lY., and 

 twelve years later succeeded Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire at the Sorbonne. 

 Though the major part of his numerous publications belong to 

 zoology, yet palaeontology was rightly regarded by Milne-Edwards 

 as an inseparable part of that science, and geology claims him as 

 one of her greatest benefactors. His first paper which directly 

 treats of fossils dates so far back as 1836, and deals with some forms 

 belonging to the genus Eschara. He also wrote at various times 

 on fossil Crustacea, and in 1863 on the human jaw of Moulin - 

 Quignon. But his great palseontological work by which his name 

 will ever be held in honour among us, was done among the Corals. 

 Of it the most important parts are numerous papers, written con- 

 jointly with M. Jules Haime about the years 1848 and 1849, 

 which were followed up by their great book ' Monographic des 

 Poly piers Fossilcs des terrains Paleozoiques, prccedee d'un tableau 

 general de la classification des Polypes.' ISText in order came, by 

 the same authors, the important contributions to the Palaeonto- 



