"Vol. 67.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OE THE PRESIDENT. lxi 



But times have changed. There are great national museums, 

 one of the duties of which is to contain and conserve collections of 

 geological specimens, and to make them accessible to investigators ; 

 and there are teaching institutions at which students are pro- 

 vided with the geological material necessary lor their studies. 

 There is not, therefore, the pressing need that formerly existed for 

 the Geological Society to maintain a museum of its own. 



On the other hand, the Society has been gradually accumulating 

 what is probably the finest collection of geological literature in the 

 world. The Society's exchanges, its acknowledged position in the 

 Science, and the sums devoted to the upkeep of the Library, combine 

 to make the annual accumulation of books a very formidable matter, 

 but one- which redounds to the credit of the Society, adds to its 

 reputation, and makes its Fellowship of great value to geological 

 workers. The importance of the Library is further considerably 

 enhanced by the annual publication of the list of additions to it 

 in the form of ' Geological Literature.' The vast service that 

 this Library renders and is capable of rendering to Geological 

 Science makes it imperative that the Geological Society should 

 foster its growth by every means in its power, should secure the 

 presence in it of all works of importance, should catalogue them 

 properly and continuously, and render them easily accessible to 

 those who wish to consult them. This cannot be properly carried 

 out in the room at present devoted to the Library, which has already 

 overflowed into several other of the rooms in the House. An 

 additional series of rooms, worthy of the object and suitably fitted 

 up, is an absolute necessity if the Society is to do its duty by its 

 Library. And the only rooms available are those at present devoted 

 to the Museum. 



It has, therefore, been thought well by the Society to pass the 

 resolutions mentioned in the Annual Report, and to commit to the 

 Council the task of drafting a scheme for the disposal of the 

 contents of the Museum and of providing in their place for additional 

 Library accommodation. The passing of that Annual Report by 

 the Anniversary Meeting to-day may be regarded as confirming 

 these resolutions. 



The contents of the Collection have been given to the Society 

 by a very large number of donors throughout the century of its 

 existence. They consist in part of minerals, rocks, and fossils, 

 illustrating papers read to the Society ; in part of specimens 

 collected by Fellows in their travels in Foreign countries and in 

 the Colonies ; and in part of material collected in the working out 



