270 Progress in Science. [April, 



general notion prevailed, agreeing closely with the theory of old Dr. John 

 Woodward, who founded the chair, that all "fossils were the result of a universal 

 deluge which had once swept over the whole earth, and to the agency of which 

 all the strata owed their origin. 



Professor Sedgwick directed some of his earliest inquiries to the structure 

 of Devon and Cornwall, in which counties the relations of the rocks present 

 problems of great difficulty — even now much discussion takes place in regard 

 to them, as was pointed out in the last number of the " Quarterlv Journal of 

 Science." Professor Sedgwick, sometimes accompanied by Sir Roderick 

 Murchison, examined the district in great detail, and determined, if not the 

 true age of the beds, their true succession. 



Professor Sedgwick devoted his attention at times to the Continent, and ex- 

 plained the geological structure of the Alps and Rhenish provinces. In the 

 " Geological Magazine " for April, 1870, there was a biographical notice and 

 a portrait of this eminent geologist : in the former was a list of forty-four papers 

 contributed by him, a few in conjunction with Sir R. Murchison or Mr. W. 

 Peile — all contributions to geological science. Among these we may mention 

 his Memoirs on the Magnesian Limestone of the North of England ; on the 

 Trap Rocks of Durham and Cumberland ; on the Fossiliferous Strata of the 

 North of Scotland, and on the Isle of Arran ; on the Mountains of Cumberland 

 and North Wales ; and his Essays on Slaty Cleavage. 



These show the extent of country examined by Professor Sedgwick, and the 

 many subjects he was master of. 



No member of his University has contributed in a higher degree than he to 

 elevate its character as a school of the natural sciences, and many of our leading 

 geologists owe their first geological lessons to Sedgwick, who as a lecturer was 

 clear, earnest, and philosophical, full of energy, and even to the last vigorous, 

 and, when his health permitted, cheerful and full of humourous anecdote. 



To Professor Sedgwick also the University is indebted for much care and 

 liberality in providing for the now large collections of the Geological Museum, 

 the nucleus of which was Dr. Woodward's own small cabinet. 



It is some satisfaction to learn that the post of professor of geology in the 

 University of Cambridge left vacant by the decease of the venerable Sedgwick, 

 has been filled by a distinguished pupil of his — Mr. T. McKenny Hughes, 

 M.A., F.S.A., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales. Mr. 

 Hughes has done much detailed field-work on the geological survey in Kent, 

 Hertfordshire, and in the Lake District. He has written portions of the 

 Survey Memoirs illustrating the geology of the Lake District, and has also 

 contributed largely to Mr. Whitaker's Memoir on the Geology of the London 

 Basin. The " Quarterlv Journal of the Geological Society," and the " Geo- 

 logical Magazine," contain papers by Mr. Hughes, and he is not only known 

 as a clear writer, but as a ready and clear lecturer. 



Geological Azvards. — The awards of the Geological Society of London may 

 be looked upon as the highest honours conferred upon geologists in this country, 

 and they are intimately connected with the progress of the science, being either 

 the reward of a life's devotion to its advancement, or a stimulus to one in early 

 life to continue researches which have materially assisted the progress of 

 geology. At the Anniversary Meeting of the Society, held in February last, 

 the president, the Duke of Argyll, presented the Wollaston Gold Medal to 

 Sir Philip Egerton, Bart., F.R.S., &c, for the services he has rendered to 

 geology, during a period extending over forty years, in the special attention he 

 has bestowed on the structure and affinities of fossil fishes and reptiles. The 

 balance of the proceeds of the Wollaston Donation Fund was awarded to Mr. 

 J. W. Judd. F.G.S., in recognition of his valuable researches in the Neocomian 

 and Jurassic rocks of England, and in the Oolitic rocks of the west coast of 

 Scotland. The Murchison Medal, the first award made under and in fulfil- 

 ment of the will of the late Sir Roderick Murchison, was handed to Mr. William 

 Davis, of the British Museum, in recognition of the services he has rendered 

 to palaeontology, in the skill and knowledge he has displayed in the recon- 

 struction of extinct forms of life; and the balance of the Murchison Fund was 

 awarded to Prof, Oswald Heer, of Zurich, for his researches in fossil botany 



