48 PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



graphical Society, on the History of the British Fossil Corals. Of 

 this memoir, so familiar to all English students, the first part 

 appeared in 1850, and the last in 1854, the whole forming a quarto 

 volume of more than 300 pages and 72 plates. Lastly, after the 

 death of M. Haime, Professor Milne-Edwards published his ^ His- 

 toire naturelle des Coralliaires,' which, though more strictly zoolo- 

 gical than the others, is of hardly less importance to palaeontologists 

 from its bearing on the anatomy and on the principles of classifi- 

 cation of the Zoantharia. Its merits and that of the preceding 

 work are by none more esteemed and acknowledged than by Pro- 

 fessor P. M. Duncan, the author of the ' Supplement ' contributed to 

 the Palseontographical Society. Of the enormous amount of work 

 accomplished by Milne-Edwards during his long and laborious life, 

 space does not allow me to speak in detail. I will only say that 

 its leading characteristic was that he never lost sight of physiology 

 in zoology, and thus was a contributor to the philosophy no less 

 than to the taxonomy of science. 



His merits happily were not unrecognized. He was revered by 

 his numerous pupils. Many honours were conferred upon him in 

 his own country, among them being the membership of the Academy 

 of Sciences and the grade of Grand-Officer of the Legion of Honour. 

 He received eleven orders from various foreign countries, Great 

 Britain, it is needless to say, not being one of them ; but he was 

 elected a Eoreign Member of our Society in 1860, and was Honorary 

 Eoreign Member and Copley Medallist of the Eoyal Society. He 

 died on July 29, 1885. 



A veteran in science, whose name brings up memories of a past 

 generation of geologists, was lost to us early last March in the 

 person of General Gregoe von Helmeesei^t, who was elected one of 

 our Eoreign Members in 1851. He was an assiduous worker, 

 devoting his attention especially to the coal and other mineral . 

 deposits of Russia, on which subjects he contributed largely not only 

 to scientific journals but also to more popular periodicals. A friend 

 of Murchison, and a helper in his work on Russia, General von 

 Helmersen's furst paper, relating to the Ural mines, is dated in 

 1835 ; and he afterwards contributed more than once to our Journal. 

 So far back as 1873 we find a list of sixty-nine papers bearing his 

 name in the Catalogue of the Royal Society ; and his latest present- 

 ations to our Library in the year 1883, ' Studien liber die "Wander- 

 blocke und die Diluvialgebilde Russlands,' and ' Geologische und 

 physico-geographische Beobachtungen im Plonezer Bergrevier,' are a 

 proof of the wide extent of his interest in our science and his ability 

 to labour effectively up to a very advanced period of life. 



Giuseppe di Tomaso Ponzi, Eoreign Correspondent of the Society 

 since the year 1863, was born on May 20, 1805. Educated for the 

 medical profession, he was in active practice for some years, highly 

 distinguishing himself for his energy during an outbreak of cholera 

 in 1836. After devoting himself more especially to scientific pur- 



