GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF DUDLEY. 



59 



The noble president being absent at the earlier stages of 

 the proceedings, C. Cartwright, Esq. was called to the chair, 

 and after briefly alluding to the business of the meeting, di- 

 rected Mr. Blackwell to read the report of the Committee, 

 which detailed among other subjects, the purchase of a suit- 

 able building for the valuable Museum of the Society, which 

 comprises a series of the fossils of the district of consider- 

 able extent and interest. The report was adopted on the 

 motion of Viscount Lewisham seconded by H. Mathews, 

 Esq., after which the rules of the Society were read and con- 

 firmed, and the officers elected for the ensuing year. 



Mr. Murchison then proceeded to deliver the inaugural 

 address, in which he alluded, firstly, to the gratification 

 which he felt in the establishment of this institution, which 

 he hoped would confer a lasting benefit on geological science. 

 He next proceeded by stating, 



That the two conditions essential to the success of any association 

 were to be found in their town and neighbourhood, — namely, a sufficient 

 number of subjects to excite research, and the existence of persons ade- 

 quate to their investigation. The value and importance of local mu- 

 seums had already been tested in various parts of Great Britain ; and 

 such bodies would, in his opinion, best attain their end, if they endea- 

 voured to illustrate perfectly their own neighbourhood, instead of en- 

 cumbering their rooms with objects of general interest or curiosity. The 

 attempt to form, in a provincial town, a miniature British Museum must 

 necessarily fail, and could not advance science, for, with every effort to 

 establish a collection which must after all be very imperfect, the time 

 and attention of the active members would be too much withdrawn from 

 the consideration of the natural phenomena which surrounded them. He 

 would therefore encourage them in the course which they had so well 

 begun — a course which promised to render the Dudley Museum the 

 normal school of whatever was most interesting in the geology of the 

 Midland Counties. Amongst the points of geological inquiry to which 

 he would direct their attention, in reference to the interesting district 

 around them, he would mention — first, the illustration of the probable 

 range and extent of the productive coal field beneath the adjacent red 

 sandstone, by the analogy of the structure of the northern counties ; 



