ANNIVEESART ADDKESS OF THE PEESIDENT. 47 



nevertheless enabled him to linger until the present winter. He 

 died on the 9th December last, within a few weeks of reaching his 

 78th year. In the old churchyard of Llansadwrn, almost within 

 hearing of the Menai Strait, on the history of which he had so long 

 pondered, and within sight of the Snowdon mountains which he 

 knew and loved so well, and which he taught so many others to 

 know and love, his honoured remains were laid at rest. 



Of the man himself, as we knew him in daily intercourse, we 

 shall ever retain the kindliest memory. His frank manly bearing, 

 his well-cut features beaming with good nature, his keen sense of 

 humour, his gaiety of spirits, his ready powers of conversation, and 

 above all his unfailing generous sympathy and helpfulness, gathered 

 around him a large circle of devoted friends, who admired his genius 

 and loved his character. To them his retirement ten years ago 

 from public life was a keen personal loss, and now they mourn that 

 he has passed for ever away. We in the Geological Society are 

 happy in the remembrance that we enjoyed for so long the company 

 of one so deserving to be held in honour, and that, among those who 

 have been our Presidents and have received our highest award, we 

 can point with pride to the name of Andrew Crombie Eamsay. 



Another of the former Presidents of this Society has been removed 

 from our midst by the death of Professor P. Maetiijt Dtjncais", which 

 took place on the 28th of May last. Born at Twickenham on 20th 

 April, 1824, he was educated at King's College, London, as a 

 physician, took the degree of Bachelor of Medicine in 1846, and was 

 chosen an Associate of the College in 1849. At first he practised 

 his profession at Colchester, and took so much interest in the affairs 

 of that town that eventually he was elected its Mayor. Already, even 

 in the midst of the many calls on his time and energies, he had begun 

 to interest himself in natural-history pursuits, and the way in which 

 he arranged the contents of the local museum showed how keen a 

 sympathy and wide a knowledge he possessed in that department of 

 enquiry. Eventually finding the definite adoption of scientific work 

 as the labour of his life far more to his taste than the medical pro- 

 fession, he settled in London, and giving up his practice, took to the 

 study of palaeontology. He began with corals, and soon showed such 

 mastery of the subject that he was speedily acknowledged to be one 

 of the ablest investigators of invertebrate palaeontology in this 

 country. 



In the year 1870 he was appointed to the Chair of Geology in 



