xliv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [vol. lxxix, 



Award op the Wollaston Medal. 



In presenting the Wollaston Medal to Mr. William Whitaker, 

 E.R.S., the President addressed him as follows : — 



Mr. Whitaker, — ■ 



The award to you of the Wollaston Medal expresses, with the 

 greatest emphasis that is possible, not only the high value which is 

 placed upon your contributions to Geology, but the affection with 

 which you are regarded by the Society as a whole. The nature and 

 worth of your researches in many parts of England were dealt with 

 by Presidents much better qualified for the task than I am, when 

 you received the Murchison Medal in 1886 and the Prestwich 

 Medal in 1906. It is a privilege which I value very highly to be 

 in a position to give to you the blue ribbon of British Geology, 

 and in handing it to you 1 venture to lay stress upon what I may 

 call the more human aspect of your services to Geology. There is 

 a genius of the heart as well as of the brain ; and, if I may say so, 

 you are fortunate in possessing both. Familiar, in a limited degree, 

 with the more technical side of your work, I have long been accus- 

 tomed to think of you as an exceptionally happy illustration of the 

 "truth of the dictum that men of science are always the most 

 human. It is no light service that you have rendered through 

 your sympathetic appreciation of the needs and aspirations of 

 younger generations of students, both professional and amateur, 

 by imparting to them some of your own enthusiasm, enabling 

 them to acquire not only a love of Nature and the joy of probing 

 into the secrets of the rocks, but the ability to realize the truth of 

 W. E. Henley's lines : — 



' What Nature has writ with her lusty wit 

 Is worded so wisely and kindly, 

 That whoever has dipped in her manuscript 

 Must up and follow her blindly.' 



Mr. Whitaker replied in the following words : — ■ 

 Mr. President, — 



I am proud to find my name associated with the names of the 

 ninety-four good men, from William Smith onward, who have 

 received this medal. 



