52 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



has written on hollow spherulites ; Mr. Gresley on some interesting 

 nodules of haematite found in the Permian beds of Leicestershire ; 

 your President on some Picrites ; and Mr. Johnston-Lavis has dealt 

 with a large subject in his paper on the physical conditions involved 

 in the injection, extrusion, and cooling of igneous rock. Dr. Calla- 

 way has brought to our notice, in his communication on granitic 

 and schistose rocks in N". Donegal, one of those areas on the 

 Western side of Ireland in which, I am convinced, a rich harvest 

 yet awaits future workers. Mr. W. W. Watts has made his dehut 

 as a contributor to our Journal with a very valuable paper on the 

 igneous and associated rocks of the Breidden Hills; while from 

 Professor Judd we have received another instalment of his long and 

 arduous labours in the North of Britain, in the form of his most 

 important and suggestive memoir on the Gabbros, Dolerites, and 

 Basalts of Tertiary age in Scotland and Ireland. 



Without the limits of our Journal also there are no indications 

 that the store of scientific energy on the part of our Pellows is 

 becoming exhausted. The Geological Magazine continues its useful 

 career and maintains its high standard. Perhaps a marked increase 

 in the number of contributors might cause, through an " embarrass- 

 ment of riches," some anxiety to its excellent editor ; but I am sure 

 that both he and its publisher would regard with equanimity, nay, 

 welcome heartily, a doubling of its subscribers. The annual volume 

 of the Paleeontographical Society, edited by our Treasurer, Professor 

 Wiltshire, has just appeared. In it Mr. Starkie Gardner concludes 

 his notice of the Conifers of the British Eocene, and two other 

 works are completed, the authors of which have now laid down the 

 pen for the last time: these are Dr. Davidson's supplementary 

 memoir on the British Brachiopoda, and Dr. T. Wright's monograph 

 on the Ammonitidse of the Lias. A memoir on the Stromatoporidae 

 is commenced by Professor Mcholson. It is evident, from the part 

 now issued, that an exceptionally difiicult, but certainly very inter- 

 esting subject has fallen into most competent hands. The present 

 volume maintains the high standard of those that have preceded 

 it, and I know of no other desideratum for this series than a larger 

 measure of pecuniary support. In regard to these two works, may 

 I be permitted for one moment to plead, as I am accastomed to do 

 elsewhere for various beneficial objects, and to recommend them 

 to geologists as worthy of a more general support than they at 

 present receive. Science, like a fatherland, calls for patriotism on the 

 pa]4 of its votaries. There are in each branch of science certain 

 publications the support of which is incumbent on the student as a 

 primary duty. Therefore, whether or not his own particular investi- 

 gations have much in common with these, he is bound, in my 

 opinion, to subscribe to their support, and to devote each year a 

 small sum of money to the general good. It is, I think, hardly 

 creditable to a geologist who can afford the expenditure, to reckon 

 on consulting the numbers of the Geological Magazine and the 

 volumes of the Palseontographical Society in this Library. 



The second volume of Phillips's ' Manual of Geology,' rewritten 



