ANNIVERSARY MEETING BIG SB Y MEDAL. 



37 



Award of the Bigsby Medal. 



In presenting the Bigsby Gold Medal to Prof. Charles Lapworth, 

 LL.D., P.G.S., the President said : — 



Professor Lapworth, — 



The late Dr. Bigsby established a Medal to be awarded to one 

 "not too old for further work, and not too young to have done 

 much." That yon admirably comply with the latter qualification 

 every geologist knows ; bnt that your age could possibly fall below 

 the limit prescribed by the founder of this Medal, anyone not per- 

 sonally acquainted with you might be pardoned for doubting. In 

 studying the difficult, but, to geologists, very important group of the 

 Graptolites, in utilizing your knowledge of those remarkable fossils 

 for unravelling the stratigraphical problems presented by the con- 

 torted beds of the Scottish Borderland, and in applying the valuable 

 experience thus acquired to the far more difficult examples of involved 

 stratigraphy found in the county of Sutherland, you have exhibited 

 a happy blending of those powers of patient observation and of bold 

 generalization which are equally necessary for the man of science. 

 Those who know you best will feel the least doubt concerning those 

 " favours to come " in the shape of further work, the " lively sense " 

 of which constitutes the staple of our gratitude to you to-day. 



Prof. Lapworth, in reply, said : — 



Mr. President, — 



I am deeply sensible of the distinction which the Council of the 

 Geological Society have conferred upon me in awarding me the Bigsby 

 Medal ; and I am grateful, indeed, for the generous words in which 

 you have referred to my geological work. If anything could add to 

 the gratification with which I accept this award, it is that I receive 

 it from the hands of one who, since the reading of my first paper 

 before this Society, has been a staunch friend and a sympathetic 

 adviser. I am afraid that the Members of this Society are a little 

 inclined to rate my geological labours somewhat higher than they 

 deserve, and I regard this Medal less as a reward for what I have 

 done in the past than as a stimulus and encouragement for the 

 future. The pursuit of original research has always appeared 

 to me to be the highest and most pleasurable of enjoyments — 

 and none the less pleasurable, as it has for years been associated in 

 my mind with the unfailing interest, sympathy, and friendship 

 accorded me by the Members of this Society. My leisure and means 

 for work of this kind are, however, but small ; but I am confident 

 that there is no need for me to assure the Society that such leisure 

 and powers as I possess will in the future be given to the service 

 of that science to which we are all devoted. 



