Geological Society of London. 183 
Mr. Hulke replied : — I cannot doubt, Sir, that the award of this Medal will afford 
Prof. Marsh the highest satisfaction. His Services to Paloeontology have just been 
so fully enumerated by yourself as not to leave me anything to add in his behalf ; 
they are so numerous and so important as to mark an epnch in this line of research. 
The present recognition of the value of his labours will doubtless prove an incentive 
to fresh work. 
The President then proceeded to read his Anniversary Address, in which he re- 
ferred to the fact that the strict uniformitarianism of former days is giving way to a 
school which insists upon the recognition of a scientific cosmogony, and attempts the 
explanation of the gradual evolution of the globe. He noticed the characters of the 
great curves of the surface produced by the earliest contractions of the globe in 
cooling, and especially discussed the effect of the forces to which the curviug, folding, 
reversing, and upheaval of rocks are due, in the production of heat below the surface 
of the earth, and the manifestations of this interior heat in vulcanicity and rneta- 
morphism. He also referred to the rate of formation of deposits, tlie necessary 
extension of geological time, the conditions of denudation, the exteut and cosmical 
relations of the atmosphere of our earth, and the effects upon geological phenomena 
of a probably higher and more abundant atmosphere in past ages. Stratigraphical 
geology, he remarked, has becoine synthetic ; and instead of seeking for sharp breaks 
between formations, characterized by universal destructions of existing and creations 
of new forms, geologists now seek for evidence of the continuity of geological pheno- 
mena. the so-called “ passage-beds ” being recognizud as not geological anomalies, 
but links in the chain of evidence regarding the variety of the synchronous changes 
on the surface of the earth, and of the irregularity and localization of the grand 
movements of its crust. These Statements were illustrated by reference to various 
formations in different parts of the earth. The President also briefly discussed the 
modern doctrine of the origin of organic forms by descent with modification. The 
Address was prefaced by some obituary notices of Fellows and Foreign Members 
deceased during the past year, including Prof. Ehrenberg, Baron von Waltershausen, 
Prof. Brongniart, Mr. E. Billings, Dr. H. C. Barlow, Dr. H. Credner, Mr. T. G. 
Wyndham, and Mr. David Forbes. 
The Ballot for the Council and Officers was taken, and the following were duly 
elected for the ensuing year: — President: Prof. P. Martin Dunean, M.B., F.R.S. 
Vice- President# : Sir P. de M Grey-Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.; R. Etheridge, 
Esq., F.R.S.j John Evans, Esq., F.R.S; Prof. J. Prestwich, M.A., F.R.S. 
Secretaries : J. W. Hulke, Esq., F.R.S.; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A. Foreign 
Secretary : Warington W. Smyth, Esq., M.A., F.R.S. l'reasurer : J. Gwyn 
Jeffreys, LL.D., F.R.S. Council : H. Bauerman, Esq.; Rev. T. G. Bonney, M.A.; 
W. Carruthers, Esq., F.R.S ; Prof. W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.R.S.; Prof. P. 
Martin Dunean, M.B., F.R.S.; Sir P. de M. Grey-Egerton, Bart., M.P., F.R.S.; 
R. Etheridge, Esq., F.R.S.; John Evans, Esq , F.R.S.; Henry Hicks, Esq.; W. 
H. lludleston, Esq., M.A.; J. W. Hulke, Esq., F.R.S.; J. Gwyn Jeffreys, LL.D., 
F.R.S.; Prof. J. W. Judd; Prof. T. McKeuny Hughes, M.A.; Prof. J. Morris; 
Prof. J. Prestwich, M.A.., F.R.S.; R. H. Scott, Esq., M.A., F.R.S.; Earl of 
Selkirk, F.R.S.; Samuel Sharp, Esq., F.S.A.; Warington W. Srpyth, Esq., M.A., 
F.R.S.; Admiral T. A. B. Spratt, C.B., F.R.S.; Rev. T. Wiltshire, M.A., F.L.S.; 
Henry WoodwardJ Esq., F.R.S. 
III. — February 21st, 1877. — Prof. P. Martin Dunean, M.B., F.R.S., President, 
in the Chair. — The following Communications were read : — 
1 . ‘‘ On Possible Displacements of the Earth’s Axis of Figure produced by Elevations 
and Depressions of her Surface.” By the Rev. J. F. Twisden, M.A., Professor of 
Mathematics in the Staff College. Commuuicated by John Evans, Esq., F.R.S., F.G.S. 
The object of this paper is to discuss the question of the possibility of a displacement 
of the earth’s axis of figure under the conditions indicated in a question (suggesting 
the possibility of a displacement of the axis of figure from the axis of rotation 
amounting to 15° or 20°) put to mathematicians in a passage of the Anniversary 
Address, delivered to the Geological Society, by its President, J. Evans, Esq., on the 
ISth February, 1876. The treatment of the question is kinematical; the forces by 
which the elevatious and depressions might be effected do not come under discussion. 
In determining numerically the amouut of the deviation from the formulas iuvestigated, 
