38 



PROCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



issued by that Society. The rest of the £ Crag Mollusca ' followed 

 in subsequent years ; and upon the completion of this work, and in 

 recognition of his labours generally in connexion with the Tertiary 

 Mollusca, the Council of the Geological Society awarded to Mr. 

 Wood in the year 1860 the Wollaston Medal. A large supple- 

 ment to this work, embod}dng the discoveries which had subse- 

 quently accumulated, was prepared by Mr. Wood ; and this, ac- 

 companied by an introduction describing geologically the formations 

 from which the remains embraced by the work had been obtained, 

 from the pen of his son and of Mr. F. W. Harmer, was issued by 

 the Pakeontographical Society in 1871 and 1873. A second sup-, 

 plement followed this in 1879 ; and Mr. Wood was actively en- 

 gaged, up to the day of his seizure with fatal illness, on another 

 small addition. On the completion of the description of the Mol- 

 luscan remains from the Crag, Mr. Wood presented the unrivalled 

 collection of them, which he had been forming during thirty years, 

 to the nation, in order that, by being preserved intact in the 

 British Museum, the types of all the forms which had been de- 

 scribed and figured by him in his work (save two or three which 

 belonged to other persons) might be available for examination and 

 comparison by naturalists engaged in similar labours. 



He also presented to the nation the valuable collection of ver- 

 tebrate remains (including among them the unique jaws of Alligator 

 liantoniensis and Microclicerus erinaceus) which he had, in 1843-5, 

 extracted from the Eocene Freshwater beds of Hordle Cliff, 

 from which beds up to the time when he commenced forming this 

 collection no such remains had been known. These he partially 

 figured and described in the London Geological Journal ; but the 

 stoppage of that publication brought this part of his labours to an 

 unexpected termination. In 1858, having the advantage of an 

 unrestricted manipulation of the more extensive collection of 

 Eocene Mollusca which had been formed by his friend F. E. 

 Edwards, he commenced the description of the Eocene Bivalvia, 

 Mr. Edwards taking upon himself (and having commenced before 

 this) the Cephalopoda and Gasteropoda. Several parts of this 

 work were issued by the Palceontographical Society. Failure of 

 health put a somewhat premature period to Mr. Edwards's share 

 in this work ; but Mr. Wood continued his labours for some years 

 longer, relinquishing them only when, shortly before Mr. Edwards's 

 death, his collection was acquired by the British Museum. During 

 the time in which it remained in Mr. Edwards's possession he was 

 accustomed to place in Mr. Wood's care, for study at his leisure, 

 all specimens he possessed which in any way illustrated the subject 

 in hand ; but this the transfer of the collection to the British 

 Museum rendered impracticable ; and as it was Mr. Wood's feeling 

 that, in addition to that opportunity for careful study, all forms as 

 to which any doubt existed ought to be carried abroad and com- 

 pared with those in the museums of France and Belgium, if justice 

 was to be done to the subject, and as at his advanced age he was 

 unable to accomplish this, he on the issue of the part in the volume 



