President's Address. 



3 



in our humble opinion, ought to have been the conclusion of 

 the paragraph now read, — " Practically," says Mr Jukes, " it 

 has been found, that while a very slight acquaintance with 

 the most ordinary forms of some ten or a dozen of the most 

 frequently occurring minerals is all that a geologist must 

 inevitably learn of mineralogy, the number of fossil animals 

 and plants, with the forms and the names of which he will 

 have to make himself familiar, will often have to be reckoned 

 by hundreds/' 



" This branch of geological knowledge is now known 

 under the name of Palaeontology. Perhaps, however, the 

 tendency of late years has been to neglect to too great an 

 extent the bearing of mineralogical knowledge on geology. 

 There are many subjects on which we have still to ask the 

 chemist and mineralogist to enlighten us." 



" One deficiency which is particularly obvious in Britain is 

 the want of a good and precise nomenclature of rocks, and 

 especially of igneous rocks. Since the publication of Jame- 

 sxm and Macculloch, no attempt has been made to supply 

 this deficiency, and to bring up our lithological nomen- 

 clature to the present state of chemical and mineralogical 

 knowledge." 



Let us now attempt to trace the causes which have pro- 

 duced this carelessness on the part of the English School 

 of Geology in regard to mineralogy, and to point out how 

 much we have lost by their ignorance of so important a 

 section of our science. That mineralogy is based on che- 

 mistry, no one who now hears me is likely to dispute ; and 

 no one who does not know the elements of mineralogy is, 

 on the authority I have quoted, fitted to be a geologist. It 

 is only on the extent of that knowledge that I would beg to 

 differ from the director of the Irish Geological Survey, and 

 his distinguished coadjutors in Jermyn Street. 



Many reasons are apparent why mineralogy should have 

 sunk to so low a level, as that, among the qualifications of a 

 student of geology, the mere apprehension of the characters 

 of a dozen simple minerals should fit him for the herculean 

 task of becoming an accomplished geologist. 



Perhaps among the first causes which put mineralogy out 



