134- The American Geolai/isC. August, 189b- 
(tlogical an-tl other prejudices, which stood in the wiiy of ac- 
ceptance of the evidence of man's geologic anticiuity, can 
scarcely be understood at the present time, though less than 
forty year;?, have passed since those now forgotten controver- 
sies. 
Having retired from business in 1872, Prestwich was ap- 
pointed in 1874: as the successor of Prof. John Phillips in the- 
professorship of geology at Oxford, where he taught until 
1888. He was president of the G-eological Society in 1870-72; 
vice-president of the Royal Society, 1870-71 ; and president 
of the International Congress of Geologists at its London 
session in September, 1888. On January 1st of the present 
year knighthood was conferred upon him by the Queen. The 
first volume of his text-book of geology was issued in 1886: 
and the second, containing an excellent geological map of 
Europe, in 1888. Three years later "he took up the defence 
of the rough flint implements found by Harrison on the chalk 
downs of Kent, a discovery almost as memorable as that of 
the implements in the gravels of the Somrae." In other stud- 
ies Prestwich wrote very fully of the "head" or "rubble drift" 
of England and Wales, France, and the Mediterranean region,, 
as noted, with criticism, in the American Geologist for April,. 
1894 (vol. XIII, pp. 275-279). 
■ From a biographical sketch by Dr. Henry Woodward in the 
Geological Magazine for June, 1893, with a portrait, we learn 
that, since Prof. Prestwich's retirement from the Oxford chair,, 
he has mostly resided at his country seat, Darent Hulme,. 
Shoreham, Kent, a charming house built to his own taste some 
twenty-five or thirty years ago, full of quaint geological pic- 
tures, and even in its architecture illustrating geology at ev- 
ery turn. There he divided his time between his garden and 
his library, "always in association with Mrs. Pre'itwich, his 
ever-constant companion and most enthusiastic scientific 
friend, adviser, and co-worker." w. u. 
