232 
3n /iDemonam* 
PROFESSOR A. H. GREEN, M.A. F.R S., F.G.S. 
Alexander Henry Green was born at Maidstone in 1832, the son 
of the Rev. T. S. Green, for many years head-master of the Ashby- 
de-la-Zonch Grammar School. He went from his father's school to 
Cambridge, and graduated as fourth Wrangler in 1855, when 
he was elected to a Fellowship in Gonville and Caius College. 
In 1861 he joined the Geological Survey, and after some months 
spent in Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire was transferred to the 
Yorkshire and Derbyshire Coal-field, which was to prove the scene of 
his greatest labours. Here he got a deep and practical knowledge of 
Coal-measure geology, became expert in all the technical business of 
surveying, and acquired incidentally a sound knowledge of surface 
and glacial geology. He found opportunity also to examine with 
care parts of the Lake-country and Donegal. He was an early con- 
vert to the heresy now universally taught, that the surface of the 
ground owes its form mainly to the action of rain and rivers. It is 
amusing to recall that so late as 1866 the Geological Society refused 
to print Whitaker's paper on Sub-aerial Denudation, because it 
enforced this incredible doctrine. 
In 1874 the Yorkshire College was founded, and Green was 
elected to the Professorship of Geology. His first scientific colleagues 
were Professors Riicker and Thorpe, now known to men of science all 
the world over. The first voluntary work which Green undertook as 
professor was the preparation of a new text-book of Geology, his 
Physical Geology, now in its third edition. This has become a 
classic ; it is full of knowledge, and everything is carefully thought 
out. The style is beautifully simple, and there is the charm, unusual 
in text-books, of a distinct personality. In preparation for this book 
Green studied petrology and mineralogy, which henceforth became 
favourite subjects with him. There are single paragraphs in the 
Physical Geology which cost weeks of hard work. 
In 1878 the Geological Survey issued a volume of 800 pages on 
the Geology of the Yorkshire Coal-field. This was edited, and 
largely written, by Green. It is a store of well-sifted technical in- 
formation on a subject of great practical importance. During his 
residence in Leeds Green visited IS ewfoundland and the Cape Colony 
