62 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Monday, 3 d February 1879. 
DAVID MILNE HOME, LL.D., Vice-President, 
in the Chair. 
The Keith Prize for the biennial period 1875-77, which has 
been awarded to Professor Heddle, for his papers on the 
“ Rhombohedral Carbonates,” and on the “ Felspars of Scot- 
land,” originally communicated to the Society, and containing 
important discoveries, was presented by the President (Pro- 
fessor Kelland) with the following remarks : — 
Professor Heddle, — I am here to-night to exemplify a remark 
which is often made, that to insure success in an address such as I 
am about to deliver, the best way is to commit the charge of it to one 
absolutely ignorant of the .subject. No false pride will then stand in 
the way of the best sources of information, nor will any undue 
admixture of half knowledge clog and darken the truth. For every 
particular contained in these remarks, then, I at once unhesitatingly 
acknowledge myself indebted to Professor Geikie. When I first 
became acquainted with this Society forty years ago, there used to 
frequent our meetings men who had the reputation of being 
mineralogists rather than geologists — Lord Greenock, Allan, and 
probably Jameson himself. That race has now died out, and with 
them mineralogy as a distinct science has all but lain dormant 
amongst us. During the preceding quarter of a century that science 
had flourished nowhere more vigorously than in Edinburgh. Pro- 
fessor Jameson introduced the definiteness and system of the 
Ereyburg school, and infused into his pupils such a love of minerals 
that numerous private cabinets were formed ; while under his fos- 
tering care the University Museum grew into a large and admirable 
series. One of my first acts as Professor in the University was to 
vote out of the Eeid Fund, which had just come into our hands, a 
large sum (some thousands) to pay back monies expended on 
minerals throughout a series of years preceding. During those 
years geology, as the science is now understood, hardly existed. 
For as the nature and importance of the organic remains embedded 
in the rocks became recognised, their enormous value in the 
