Vol. 51.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OE THE PRESIDENT. xlix 



THE ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 

 Henry Woodward, LL.D., E.R.S. 



Gentlemen, — 



By the death of Chevalier Dr. Josef Szabo, of St. Miklos, Hungary 

 has lost the geologist who has contributed most to our knowledge 

 of the structure of that country and the foremost representative of 

 Magyar science. Szabo was born in 1822 ; he was educated in 

 metallurgy ; his first contribution to science was a memoir on that 

 subject ; this he read, at the age of 23, at a sectional meeting of 

 the Hungarian Association of Doctors and Naturalists at Pecs. 

 His paper gained such high approval that he was asked to repeat 

 it before a meeting of the whole Association. After the end of 

 his academy course he settled at Buda-Pest, and began a detailed 

 investigation of the geology of the surrounding country. At intervals 

 in this work he made excursions further afield, and issued memoirs 

 on the geology of Ipolypaszto and Veghles, and various other districts, 

 as well as minor contributions to science. In 1858 the results of 

 his main study were issued in the form of a geological map of the 

 neighbourhood of Buda-Pest. The next year he became a volunteer 

 member of the staff of the k.-k. geologische Reichsanstalt of Vienna, 

 and surveyed the country of Nograd. By his field-work his interest 

 was directed in two different channels — one practical and economical, 

 the other theoretical and abstract. He saw the need for a closer 

 application of geology to agriculture, and was thus led to arrange 

 for surveys, having special reference to agricultural geology, to be 

 undertaken by the Hungarian Geological Institute. He was led by 

 constant work on volcanic rocks in the field to turn his attention 

 to the examination of those rocks in the study. When, therefore, 

 the labours of Zirkel and Vogelsang called more prominent attention 

 to the results that might be obtained by the microscopic investigation 

 of rock-structure, Szabo, though already an old man, at once took up 

 with enthusiasm the task of applying and perfecting these methods 

 of enquiry. Though he was still an enthusiastic collector of fossils, 

 and continued to write occasional pakeontological papers, petrography 

 henceforth was his main study. It is probably by his work on this 

 subject that he will be longest known, and it is in this subject that 

 his two principal successes were achieved. He grasped at once the 

 importance of the triclinic felspars in rocks and the difficulty in 



