Yol.  49.]  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING - WOLLASTON  MEDAL.  35 
of  the  Busti  meteorite  will  long  remain  an  example  to  future 
workers.  Further,  in  conjunction  with  the  late  Dr.  Flight,  you 
described  the  minerals  of  the  diamantiferous  rock  of  South  Africa, 
suggesting  that  an  enstatite-rock,  at  points  of  contact  with  car¬ 
bonaceous  shales,  was  probably  the  original  home  of  the  diamond — 
an  explanation  which  is  now  generally  accepted. 
Although  for  several  years  past  your  energies  have  found  employ¬ 
ment  in  another  direction,  we  may  venture  to  hope  that  your  interest 
in  those  branches  of  science  which  Wollaston  was  desirous  of  pro¬ 
moting  is  in  no  rise  lessened  ;  and  we  trust  that  you  may  yet 
achieve  results  such  as  shall  even  further  justify  the  Council  in  the 
selection  they  have  made. 
Professor  Maskelyne,  in  reply,  said  : — 
Mr.  President, — 
In  receiving  at  your  hands  the  Wollaston  Medal,  I  beg  to  thank 
<the  Council  for  the  great  honour  they  confer  on  me,  and  you,  Sir, 
for  the  generous  review  in  which  you  have  sketched  my  past 
scientific  life.  When  my  first  surprise  at  the  Award  gave  way 
to  other  thoughts,  the  first  of  them  was  one  of  gratification  at  the 
Council  having  this  year  determined  to  give  the  Medal  for  studies 
so  nearly  connected  with  Wollaston’s  work,  and  to  furthering 
which  he  rendered  such  distinguished  services.  To  these  you  have 
alluded  ;  and,  in  the  kindly  view  you  have  taken  of  my  work, 
I  thank  you  for  associating  with  it  the  names  of  some  of  those  to 
whom  I  was  much  indebted  in  its  achievement. 
You  have  alluded,  Sir,  to  the  period — nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century — that  I  was  working  at  the  British  Museum  as  head  of  the 
Mineral  Department.  I  am  proud  of  the  work  done  in  those  years, 
and  it  was  done,  as  most  good  work  is  done,  by  few  hands — mostly 
by  those  of  Mr.  Thomas  Davies  and  myself.  Davies  came  to  me  a 
young  man,  fresh  from  the  sea,  and  absolutely  innocent  of  any 
scientific  knowledge.  He  died  a  few  weeks  ago,  in  many  ways  an 
accomplished  man — the  best  judge  of  a  mineral  in  this  country,  and 
an  admirable  petrologist — a  worthy  son  of  William  Davies,  and  a 
worthy  recipient  of  the  Wollaston  Fund,  which  was  awarded  him 
some  years  ago.  And,  Sir,  I  have  to  thank  you  for  naming  another 
of  the  helpers  in  my  work — Dr.  Walter  Flight.  He,  too,  is  no 
more ;  and  there  died  in  him  one  of  the  finest  of  laboratory  mani¬ 
pulators  and  a  very  accomplished  chemist. 
