40 PROCEEDINGS OE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Secretary. Sir Charles Bunbury will always be recognized as one of 

 the ablest pioneers in the study of fossil plants. 



Mr. Geoege Bttse: was born in the year 1807. Destined by his 

 father, who resided in St. Petersburg, for the medical profession, he 

 early showed signs of those scientific tastes by which his after 

 life was distinguished. On the completion of his medical education 

 he was appointed surgeon to the Seamen's Hospital-ship ' Dread- 

 nought,' and after 25 years of useful labour he retired from that 

 post with the object of devoting himself entirely to scientific pursuits. 

 One of the first-fruits of the leisure thus secured was seen in his 

 ' Catalogue of Polyzoa in the British Museum,' which appeared in 

 1852-54. and his splendid monograph on the fossil Polyzoa of the Crag, 

 published by the Palaeontographical Society in 1859. This work had 

 been originally undertaken by Jules Haime, and the materials for it 

 were found in the rich collections of Searles Wood and Bowerbauk. 

 In this work Mr. Busk showed the value of an exact and extensive 

 knowledge of recent forms to a palaeontologist in explaining the 

 fossil representatives of any group, for on all questions connected with 

 the anatomy and physiology of the lowest division of the molluscan 

 series Mr. Busk was recognized by biologists as the highest authority. 



In 1863, accompanied by several other English geologists, Mr. 

 Busk attended the Conference called together to discuss the question 

 of the age and authenticity of the human jaw found at Moulin 

 Quignon, and in this way his attention appears to have been directed 

 to a very important class of geological problems. In the following 

 year he proceeded to Gibraltar with Dr. Falconer, for the purpose 

 of investigating the fauna preserved in the bone-caves of that 

 place. 



From this time we find Mr. Busk devoting much of his time and 

 attention to the study of the post-Tertiary Mammalia derived from 

 bone-caves and similar situations. His papers on the relations of the 

 extinct Bears to recent species are well known, and he also wrote 

 papers on Eleplias, Hycena, and Rhinoceros. He gave his valuable 

 assistance to Professor Prestwich in the study of the bones found in 

 the Brixham Cave, and to Colonel Lane Fox by describing the 

 bones found in the valley-deposits of Acton and Turnham Green. 



During the latter part of his life, Mr. Busk took much interest in 

 ethnological questions, and was an active member of the Anthro- 

 pological Institute. 



This is not the place for attempting to estimate the value of Mr. 

 Busk's numerous contributions to Biological Science, or of his active 



