36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Dr. Blanford, in reply, said : — 

 Mr. President, — 



I am very pleased to undertake the duty of transmitting the 

 Award from the Barlow-Jameson Fund to Prof. • Charles Mayer- 

 Eymar. The money will be devoted to one of the most important 

 objects for which these funds were originally founded — the payment 

 of the travelling expenses of a geologist who is engaged in investi- 

 gating the structure of a distant country. 



Professor Mayer-Eymar, in a letter from Cairo written on the 

 4th of the present month, asks me to convey his thanks to the 

 Society, expresses his warm acknowledgment of the assistance to his 

 work that the present Award will give, and promises, as evidence of 

 his gratitude, to send in the course of next month, for the informa- 

 tion of the Society, an account of his three principal stratigraphical 

 discoveries in Egypt. 



The Murchison Centenary. 



The President then said : — 



Before passing from the subject of the Awards, I should like to 

 refer very briefly to the remarkable and interesting coincidence that 

 this Anniversary day of our Society is also the centenary of one of the 

 great geologists who founded our Medals and Eunds. Exactly one 

 hundred years ago (viz. on Eebruary 19th, 1792) Roderick Impey 

 MuRCHisoN was born. Twenty years have passed away since he 

 was removed from our midst ; and at this distance of time we can 

 better estimate the value of his work and its influence on the 

 progress of our science. I do not purpose, on the present occasion, 

 to attempt such a critical estimate. I am sure, however, that 

 I express not my own feeling only, but that of every Eellow of the 

 Society, when I say that though we have been able to correct some 

 of his observations, and discard some of his deductions, the solid 

 work which he accomplished, more especially in the establishment 

 of his Silurian system, stands on a basis which seems even stronger 

 and broader now than when he laid it more than half a century 

 ago. His name has become a household word in Geology, and will 

 go down to future ages as that of one of the great pioneers of the 

 science. 



To those who knew him personally and learnt to appreciate the 



