Vol. VIII.] [Part I. 
PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
YORKSHIRE 
GEOLOGICAL AND POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY. 
Edited by JAMES W. DAVIS, F.S.A., F.G.S., &c. 
1882. 
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES OF EMINENT YORKSHIRE GEOLOGISTS. 
I. "JOHN PHILLIPS." BY THE EDITOR. 
My personal knowledge of Professor John Phillips dates no further 
back than the meeting of the British Association at Bradford, in 
1873, only one year before his death. My recollection is very fresh 
of his kind and genial face, his winning and encouraging smile, the 
ever-ready and wise words with which he brightened and enlivened 
the most perplexing questions, and the deep knowledge and great 
experience which lay below and prompted all his observations. 
This comparatively slight personal knowledge, however, has served 
to give life and vigour, an actuality which otherwise might have 
been impossible, to the study of the works of the veteran geolo- 
gist. Within the short period of the Hfe of John Phillips, the 
history of geology as a science" has had its birth, has been 
nurtured and grown, and before his death, its interesting ramifi- 
cations had encircled the whole crust of the earth. The germs 
of truth gathered and elucidated by Professor Phillips and his 
uncle, William Smith, have served as the basis on which the 
whole superstructure of geological science has been erect2d. 
