Vol. 65.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 1XV 



wandering traveller, straying by the foot of Pentelicus, had 

 happened to catch a glimpse of our encampment, he would have 

 fancied himself back in the time of the Greek mythology, witnessing 

 a festival of fauns.' 



Gaudry brought home to Paris a rich booty : there were several 

 thousands of bones, representing monkeys, carnivora (among them 

 Macliairodus), rhinoceros, mastodons, deinotherium, hipparion, 

 antelopes, and giraffes. In 1862 the first part of his great work 

 on ' Les Animaux fossiles & la Geologie de l'Attique ' made its 

 appearance ; it was completed in 1867. 



The comparative study of these remains, in connexion with 

 recent forms on the one hand and still older forms on the other, 

 such as those of Sansan and Auvergne, led him to perceive that 

 ancestral affinities could be traced in linear series. Gaudry thus 

 became a convinced transformationist ; and in this he stood for 

 the moment absolutely alone among his countrymen, for the 

 doctrine of Cuvier at that time still maintained its absolute sway. 

 Under these circumstances, he greatly appreciated the following 

 letter from Darwin, addressed to him on January 21st, 1868 : — 

 ' . . . I am delighted to hear that you intend to consider the relations of 

 fossil animals in connexion with their genealogy : . . . your belief will, 

 I suppose, at present lower you in the estimation of your countrymen ; 

 but, judging from the rapid spread in all parts of Europe, excepting France, 

 of a belief in the common descent of allied species, I must think that this 

 belief will before long become universal. How strange it is, that the country 

 which gave birth to Buffon, the elder Geoffroy, and especially to Lamarck, 

 should now cling so pertinaciously to the belief that species are immutable ! ' 

 Darwin's opinion of Gaudry was expressed a little later in a 

 letter, dated September 24th, 1868, to the Marquis de Saporta, who 

 was then tracing the genealogical relations of plants. It is as 

 follows : — 



' All the great authorities of the Institute seem firmly resolved to believe in 

 the immutability of species, and this has always astonished me. . . . Almost 

 the only exception, so far as I know, is M. Gaudry, and I think he will be 

 soon one of the chief leaders in Zoological Palasontology in Europe.' 



M. Gaudry now undertook to give a course of lectures at the 

 Sorbonne : it began in 1870, and he lectured during the siege, 

 when it rained shells in the court of the Sorbonne. At that 

 eventful time the Professor passed his nights on the ramparts 

 defending the gate of Chatillon. 



In 1872 Gaudry succeeded Lartet in the Chair of Palaeontology 

 at the Museum of the Jardin des Plantes. His next researches 



