XXAIX 
THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS TO THE GEOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY 
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. xvttt., 1862, 
pp. xl-liv. (Delivered February 21st, 1862.) 
MERCHANTS occasionally go through a wholesome, though trouble- 
some and not always satisfactory, process which they term “ taking 
stock.” After all the excitement of speculation the pleasure of 
gain, and the pain of loss, the trader makes up his mind to face facts 
and to learn the exact quantity and quality of his solid and reliable 
possessions. 
The man of science does well sometimes to imitate this procedure ; 
and, forgetting for the time the importance of his own small win- 
nings, to re-examine the common stock in trade, so that he may 
make sure how far the store of bullion in the cellar—on the faith of 
whose existence so much paper has been circulating—is really the 
solid gold of truth. 
The Anniversary Meeting of the Geological Society seems to be 
an occasion well suited for an undertaking of this kind—for an in- 
quiry, in fact, into the nature and the value of the present results 
of palzontological investigation ; and the more so, as all those who 
have paid close attention to the late multitudinous discussions, in 
which palzontology is implicated, must have felt the urgent neces- 
sity of some such scrutiny. 
First in order, as the most definite and unquestionable of all the 
results of paleontology, must be mentioned the immense extension 
and impulse given to botany, zoology, and comparative anatomy 
by the investigation of fossil remains. Indeed, the mass of biological 
