56 ATKINSON: HISTORY AND OBJECTS OF THE SOCIETY. 
Leighton (recently elected President of the Royal Academy), 
Faraday, Captain Cook, and last, but not least, our afternoon 
President, H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.R.S., whose microscopical 
researches in mineralogy and geology have a world-wide 
renown, we may well be proud of belonging to such a county; 
and may we not hope that the golden age of Yorkshire is 
not over, and that even 'yet other names may be added to 
swell the list of illustrious Yorkshiremen. 
It may interest you if I give a brief retrospect of the 
history of our Society. And here I must publicly express my 
thanks to our excellent Secretary, Mr. Davis, for the very 
valuable help he has given me in this part of my subject. 
The Society is now more purely scientific than it was for- 
merly; a great part of the proceedings up to the year 1869 or 
1870 were composed of papers, archaeological rather than 
geological. There is now, however, a Yorkshire Archaeological 
Society, which may be said to have sprung from our own. 
The need of the Geological and Polytechnic Society is as 
great or greater at the present time than it ever was. 
Science makes rapid strides continually, and it is very 
desirable that means should be provided whereby the local 
or county questions relating thereto, often of very great 
national importance, commercially and socially, should be 
easily accessible to all interested. This is one of the 
characteristic features of our Society, and we aim at giving 
and affording means for discussion thereon. 
The Society originated at a meeting of the West Riding 
coal proprietors on the 1st December, 1837; Thomas Wilson, 
Esq., of Barnsley, who afterwards became such an active 
member of our Society, occupying the chair. The vast 
importance of the Yorkshire Coal Field, occupying not less 
an area than 460 square miles, whether considered merely 
as a local question or as one of national importance, you 
cannot wonder at the formation of the Society. It was 
