Dec., 1891. 
PROFESSOR LAPWORTH, F.R.S. 
265 
PROFESSOR LAPWORTH, F.R.S. 
Midland geologists, and indeed a far wider circle chan 
they comprise, will read with intense gratification the 
announcement that one of the two Royal Medals annually 
at the disposal of the Royal Society has been awarded to 
Dr. Charles Lapwortli, the accomplished and genial Professor 
of Geology in the Mason College, Birmingham ; and that Her 
Majesty the Queen has been pleased to approve the award. 
As an enthusiastic field worker, Professor Lapworth has 
gathered around him, since he came to the Midland district, 
a large circle of devoted students, and to these, who have 
not merely learned of him how to work, but have been 
privileged to obtain an insight into the kindly nature of the man, 
the news that one of the highest honours the Royal Society 
annually bestows has fallen to the lot of their leader and friend 
will especially arouse the liveliest feelings of pleasure and 
pride ; while that far larger number who have a keen interest 
in the repute of the Midland metropolis will feel an equal 
degree of pride at the high honour which has fallen to her 
great scientific college in the person of one of its most 
popular professors. 
Some few words as to the history of the Royal Medal may 
not be out of place in the pages of the “ Midland Naturalist.” 
It was founded in 1826. The first scientist to whom it 
was given was John Dalton, the founder of the Atomic 
Theory of Chemistry. Among others to whom it has since 
been awarded we may instance Sir Humphrey Davy, Faraday, 
Herschel, Owen, Lyell, Huxley, Darwin, and Sir William 
Thompson. Within the last ten years it has been granted 
to Professor Flower, Lord Rayleigh, Professor Ray Lankester, 
Professor Moseley, Professor Thorpe, and on the present 
occasion to Professor Rucker and Professor Lapworth. 
The Royal Medal does not appear to be very frequently 
awarded to geologists. The only British geologists who have 
hitherto received it are Sir Clias. Lyell, Dr. Mantell, Professor 
Prestwich, Henry Sorby, and Professor Andrew Ramsay. 
Sir Andrew Ramsay—who was then the head of the British 
Geological Survey—secured the medal in 1879, and this was 
the last award to any British geologist. 
Professor Lapworth’s geological investigations have been 
as a rule among the oldest and most complicated of the 
British rock-formations, and principally among those which 
used to be called the Silurian of Sir Roderick Murchison, 
and he has published more than thirty original papers, giving 
accounts of his discoveries and his conclusions. 
His first geological labours resulted in his discovery of the 
