Xll 
Journal of Proceedings. 
the way to view the Loughton Camp, on the history of which the excava¬ 
tions to be speedily undertaken by the Club will probably throw some 
light, took the whole party to Loughton Station. 
Saturday, April 29th, 1882. —Ordinary Meeting. 
The twenty-seventh Ordinary Meeting of the Club was held at the head¬ 
quarters at seven o'clock, the President in the chair. 
Donations to the library were announced from the President, Mr. 
Harting (2 vols.), Mr. Mawer and Mr. Pisher Unwin (14 vols.) Mr. R. M. 
Christy sent for presentation a bust of John Ray, and a small collection 
of about 50 specimens of birds’ eggs, mostly from Essex. Mr. Wire pre¬ 
sented a specimen of the curious shell-marl from Copford, Essex. 
Unanimous votes of thanks for these presentations were passed. 
The following were elected members of the Club :—Rev. X. Brady, 
M.A., Edward S. Hasell, Hugh H. Mason, Rev. Brian S. Waud. 
The President then rose and said :—Since our March meeting we have 
had the misfortune to lose by death an honorary member whose works 
have for nearly half a century been guiding lights to naturalists and 
philosophers throughout the whole civilised world. When in future years 
we look back to the period of the foundation of this Society, we shall 
point with pride to the name of Charles Darwin as having been among 
those of our earliest supporters. This great philosophical naturalist 
breathed his last on "Wednesday, April 19th, at his quiet home at Down, in 
Kent, in the 73rd year of his age. The wealth of thought and the 
vast accumulation of facts that he has bequeathed to posterity can be 
realised only by those who are familiar with his writings, but the 
influence which he has exerted upon biological science during his lifetime 
amounts to no less than a revolution. Unlike many great reformers in 
the world of science, he lived to see the results of his patient and 
exhaustive inquiries into Nature’s inmost processes accepted by the leading 
minds of the age; he bore with philosophic calmness the revilings of 
bigotry and the narrow-minded rancour of mistaken theologies for the 
sake of the great truths which Nature had revealed to him. This gentle- 
hearted and noble-minded Kentish squire has earned for our country and 
for our age a reputation which will extend far into futurity, and the 
historians of science will henceforth refer to this as the Darwinian epoch. 
The great doctrine of Evolution has now become part and parcel of all 
our scientific ideas, and the theory of development, built on a biological 
basis by Darwin, is permeating all branches of science and philosophy. I 
do not now propose to dwell at any length upon his labours ; he has too 
recently been removed from our ranks, and I hope on some future 
occasion to be able to give you some account of them. His mortal 
remains justly repose among England’s greatest, and he was followed to 
