COUNCIL FOR 1874 . 
15 
at various periods many com*ses of Lectures to its Members. 
In 1831 a Meeting was held in this Theatre of great import¬ 
ance to the scientific world. In the previous year Dr. Brewster 
had entered into communication with Mr. Phillips, as the 
Secretary of this Society, urging upon his notice the advant¬ 
ages which would arise from an Annual Meeting of persons 
desirous to promote scientific research; aided by the Council 
and the valuable support of that great benefactor to the Society, 
the late Eev. "W. Vernon Harcourt, Mr. Phillips placed him¬ 
self in communication with some of the most eminent scientific 
men of the day, and with the officers of the various scientific 
Societies of the countrv. The result was that on the 27th 
%/ 
September, 1831, under the presidency of the late Earl 
Eitzwilliam, then Viscount Milton—to quote the words of the 
Annual Eeport of our Society for 1833:—‘‘ This Society had 
the satisfaction of seeing collected within its walls an assem¬ 
blage of many eminent members of learned and scientific bodies 
from different parts of the United Kingdom, before whom it 
became the duty of the Council to propose a plan for the con¬ 
duct of it, and for the establishment of a general system on wliich 
similar meetings might continue to be conducted hereafter.” 
At this date and in this place was established ‘‘The British 
Association for the Promotion of Science,” and Mr. Phillips 
was appointed its first Secretary, under the direction of the 
Eev. W. Vernon Harcourt, an office which he continued to hold 
until 1863. Mr. Phillips was elected a Fellow of the Eoyal 
Society in 1834, and during the same year was appointed to 
the Chair of Greology in King’s College, London, and in the 
following year the second volmne of his “ Greology of York¬ 
shire” was published. In addition to his other duties, about 
the year 1839 Professor Phillips was appointed by the Treasury 
to investigate and to report on the Geology of various parts of 
England, and in 1841 he published “ Figures and Descrip¬ 
tions of Palaeozoic Fossils of Cornwall, Devon, and Somerset;” 
and in 1842 was published the valuable memoir on “ The 
Malvern Hills compared with the Palaeozoic districts of Apper- 
ley, Wolhope, May Hill, and Usk.” After having continued 
to discharge the duties of Secretary and Keeper of this 
