Vol.67.] LNN1VERSARY MEETING — BIG SB Y MEDAL. xlvii 



exponent of Barrois. Higher praise no worker 111 the Chalk ean 

 ask than this, nor can he attain to higher office. 



And, Sir, in tendering to you and to the Council my grateful 

 thanks for this high honour, it only remains for me to say that 

 I accept it, not for my own merits, but as a recognition of the 

 splendid achievements of my fellow-workers in this most fruitful 

 field of investigation. 



Award of the Bigsby Medal. 



The President, in presenting to Prof. Othenio Abel, Ph.D., the 

 Bigsby Medal, addressed him as follows : — 



Professor Abel, — 



The Bigsby Medal has in former years been awarded to workers 

 in many branches of Geology ; to stratigraphers, petrologists, 

 palaeontologists, and to those whose special subject has been 

 tectonics or physiography : it has been given to the geologists of 

 many lands. It is, how T ever, more than thirty years since it was 

 given to one whose chief work lay in the domain of Vertebrate 

 Palaeontology, and it has never yet been awarded to a native of 

 your country. 



In awarding it on this occasion, the Council Avish to mark their 

 appreciation of your investigations upon the higher Vertebrata, 

 more especially on the Cetacea and Sircnia. Your great memoirs 

 on the Upper Miocene Toothed Whales of Belgium and on the 

 Sirenians of the Mediterranean Territory of Austria are admirable 

 examples of descriptive work, completed by philosophical deduc- 

 tions ; while your numerous smaller papers, both on mammals and 

 on lower vertebrates, are full of suggestive speculations based on 

 a detailed study of all the available materials. 



The vigour and thoroughness of the work that you have accom- 

 plished make it clear that, in the words of the Pounder, ' you are 

 not too old for further work,' while the number and excellence of 

 your publications prove that ' you are not too young to have done 

 much.' 



Count Alexander Horos, Secretary to the Imperial and Koyal 

 Austro-Hungarian Embassy, expressed, on behalf of the Ambas- 

 sador, his Excellency's regret at his unavoidable absence on that 



