1864.] 



Presidenfs Address. 



507 



on the rormation of Moantain Chains and Yolcanos as the effect of 

 Continental Elevations ; his meinoii^s on the Parallel Eoads in Glenroy ; 

 on the Effects produced by the ancient Grlaciers of Carmarthenshire ; on 

 the Ti'ansport of Erratic Boulders from a lower to a higher level ; and 

 on the Origin of Sahferous deposits. Erora the Ossiferous Superficial 

 deposits in the neighbourhood of the Plata Mr. Darwin brought home 

 an important collection of fossil mammalian remains, whiclj formed the 

 subject of a separate volume by Professor Owen. In his memoir ' On 

 the Formation of Mould,' as the result of the digestive process of the 

 common earthworm, he furnished a fresh and instructive illustration of 

 the large effects which are produced in the organic kingdom by the 

 continued agency of apparently insignificant instruments. 



The present occasion admits of little more than a bare enumeration 

 of these labours, which are stamped throughout with the impress of the 

 closest attention to minute details and acciu^acy of observation, combined 

 with large powers of generalization. The Geological Society of London 

 signalized its estimate of their importance by the award of a "WoUaston 

 MedaL 



Zoology. — In zoological science Mr. Darwin's eminent merits were to 

 some extent acknowledged ten years ago by the award of a Eoyal Medal. 

 On that occasion the zoological work that was most particularly dis- 

 tinguished was his Monograph on the Cirripeds, a class of animals whose 

 life, history, structure, and classification had previously been involved in 

 the greatest obscurity and confusion. Notwithstanding the difficulties 

 attending the study of these animals, and the extraordinary anomalies 

 presented in their structure, habits, and affinities, ]Mr. Darwin was suc- 

 cessful, as the result of unwearied labour and patience, and of the 

 exercise of the most acute and accurate observation, in clearing up all 

 that was obscure, and in disclosing for the first time numerous facts of 

 the utmost interest and importance. But since the principal points 

 contained in this monograph have been already detailed in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Eoyal Society on the occasion referred to, it is needless 

 here to recapitulate them. It will be sufficient to remark that the just- 

 ness of the estimation then placed upon Mr. Darwin's labours has since 

 been completely confirmed by the concurrent voice of all Zoologists, and 

 that the Monograph on the Cirripeds is universally acknowledged to be 

 a model of what such a work should be, and as fully entitling its author 

 to a place in the foremost rank of zoological observers and authors. His 

 labom^s in the same department were completed by the pubhcation, 

 about the same time, of two monographs on the Eossil Cirripeds of 

 Great Britain, published by the Palteontological Society. This subject, 

 which had before received scarcely any attention, and was left in the 

 greatest obscurity, is in these monographs treated in the most com- 

 plete and exhaustive manner ; and all its difficulties were removed for 

 future observers by the lucid and admirable definition of the various 



VOL. XIII. 2 Q 



