323 
of Edinburgh^ Session 1864 - 65 . 
they resolved only “ to collect the materials for future generalisa- 
tions/’ yet the great truths which had been established in Scotland 
were soon accepted and confirmed by the most eminent of their 
number. 
If our Society gained in popularity, and increased in numbers, 
during the controversy to which I have referred, it suffered a serious 
loss by the retirement of Professor Jameson and his friends to 
the Wernerian Society which he had established in 1808. But 
what was a loss to us was a gain to science. The new Society 
enlisted in its service a number of young and active naturalists, 
who enriched its Transactions with many papers of great interest 
and- value. 
If geology, as a science, drew its first breath within our walls, 
by the active labours of our colleagues, the kindred science of 
mineralogy was, at the same time, earnestly studied and greatly 
advanced. Mr Thomas Allan, who possessed one of the finest col- 
lections in Scotland, spared no expense in enriching it with new 
and rare minerals. In 1808, a Danish vessel, brought into Leith 
as a prize, was found to contain a small collection of minerals, 
which was purchased by Mr Allan, and Colonel Imrie, a Fellow of 
this Society, and a contributor to its Transactions. Among these 
minerals they found a large quantity of cryolite, a substance so 
rare that at the market price it would Lave brought L.5000. They 
found also crystals of gadolinite, sodalite, and a new mineral, to 
which Dr Thomson, who analysed it, gave the name of Allanite. 
These interesting minerals had been collected in Grreenland by 
Mr (afterwards Sir Charles) G-iesecke, during the mineralogical 
survey which he had made of that country between 1805 and 1813, 
and were shipped by him for Copenhagen in 1808. Upon his 
arrival at Hull in 1813, with another and a more valuable collection, 
he learned the fate of his former specimens, and immediately pro- 
ceeded to Edinburgh, where he was hospitably received by Mr 
Allan, Sir Creorge Mackenzie, and other members of this Society. 
During his residence here he contributed papers to our Transactions, 
and acquired so high a reputation as a mineralogist, that, through 
the interest of his friends here, he was appointed to the Chair of 
Mineralogy in the Eoyal Dublin Society. 
While the study of mineralogy was thus greatly promoted by the 
