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Annual report for 1868
GEOLOGISTS'
ASSOOIATION.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1868. IN summing up the acts of the Association in their annual retrospect, your Committee feel that it is unreasonable to expect that each year should present some novel topic of interest towards which they may direct the attention of your members, still less can they hope that so striking and instructive it colledion as the Paris Exhibition should annually afford them matter for study and examination; nevertheless, they feel it to be their duty to direct the attention of members to such objects of general public consideration as are intimately connected with the science they especially cultivate. Your Committee would at present more particularly refer to the admitted necessity, as proved by official reports and parliamentary investigation, for extending to this country the benefits, enjoyed by the citizens of other Enropean states, of technical education. They believe that the facilities afforded for the study of geology and the allied sciences, both by the noble institution whose WillIs now shelter the Geologists' Association, and by the sister college from which it has recently migrated, are not yet sufficiently appreciated to confer all the advantages they arc capable of bestowing; hut even wIlen technical education shall have reached that stage of development, which shall put to their fullest use the teaching power and material adjuncts at the disposal of both these bodies, there will yet remain an unsatisfied want, a complementary element which your Committee believe the Association to be peculiarly capable of providing, to which end they suggest the general co-operation of its members. More clearly to bring before them the nature and extent of that co-operation, they desire to remind them that geology is pre-eminently a practical science, requiring for its successful cul-
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tivation, resources and aids widely differing in character from those afforded by the observatory, the museum, or the laboratory. The astronomer, the anatomist, or the chemist may pursue his researches within the limits of his habitation, not so the geologist. The preliminaries of his science he must of course acquire in the museum and lecture-room, but the practical application of the principles he has there imbibed can only be made in the field in the face of the vast materials which nature has laid open for his contemplation. Nor, unless specially gifted, will even this suffice j the ordinary student, overwhelmed by the immensity of the mass and multiplicity of its details, knows not whcre to begin their study, and vainly seeking for a clue, abandons with a sigh the attempt to enter the labyrinth, which needed but a friendly hand to enable him to penetrate its inmost recesses. Such guidance the Association offers to the student. Inscribed on its list of membership are names justly re"ered by mature as well as rising geologists, men who are ever ready, out of their accumulated stores of knowledge, to help the learner in his need, and remove from his path the difficulties which inevitably oppress the beginner in any of the sciences of observation, while the student will find among the general rank and file many a zealous fellowworker, who albeit yet unknown to fame, has mastered the preliminary difficulties, and is well qualified by precept and example to communicate to others the advantages himself enjoys. With these elements of usefulness, your Committee feel that, to such branches of technical educ ation as demand instruction in geology and its allied sciences, much aid might be given by the greater development and more systematic organization of your excursions. They would appear, from the occasional fewness of the excursionists, not to be lmiformly successful in selecting the most attractive localities, or most convenient days j they, therefore, particularly invite suggestions from members on those two points j and, further, they would urge any member having special
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3 opportunities, to undertake the charge of an excursion in any locality with which ho may be woll acquainted. The suggestion has more than onco been thrown out that it would be most advisable that a full report should be presonted to tho Association of each excursion, of the phenomena observed, and of the specimens collected. On this head again your Committee earnestly invite co-operation. Thero may be many members whose modesty or inexperience allows them not to undertake the responsibility of a paper, but who might, nevertheless, not be unwilling to draw up a report of the nature referred to. Your Committee trust their call for volunteers may not remain without response. The subjoined list of papers testifies to the satisfactory manner in which the various branches of geology have been represented, the numerous attendance at evening meetings, and the subsequent discussions proves the sustained interest with which they are regarded by the members. The following papers were read during the past year : On Terebratulre, by Professor MORRIS, F.G.S., President. On Agates, by Professor TENNANT, F.G.S., V.P.G.A. On Graptolites, by J. HOPKINSON. On Mount Vesuvius, by JAnIES L. LOBLEY, F.G.S. On The lIineralogical Distribution of the British Flora, by Rev. JAMES CROMBIE, M.A., F.G.S. On Darwin's Theory of Pangenesis, by E. CRESY, V.P.G.A. On Some of the Physical Features of Central America, by Dr. C. CARTER BLAKE, F.G.S., &C. On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Godalming,by C. J. A. Meijer. On the Animals Associated with Pre-historic Man, by HENRY WOOD. WARD, F.G.S., Z.S., &c.
The following papers have been promised for the Ordinary Meetings in 1869 : On Corals, by P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.B., F.G.S. On Trilobites, by S. W. SALTER, F.G.S. On Foramenifera, by T. RUPERT JONES, F.G.S. On Bivalved Entomostraca, " On Silurian Cephalopoda, by the Rev. TUOMAS WrLTSUIRE, lI.A., F.G.S. V.P.G.A.
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4 On Fossil Botany, by W.
CARRUTHERS", F.L.S., G.S. On , by Rev. J. CROMBIE, M.A., F.G.S. On the Glacial Theory, by E. CRESY, V.P.G.A.
Your Committee felt great satisfaction in their last report in pointing to the balance of £40 Is. ltd.; they feel yet greater this year at being able to state that they have now a balance of .£64 12s. 9d., and no outstanding obligations. During the past year they have been able to devote seven guineas to additions to their library, and the current year's funds will permit of their spending a considerably larger sum on that desirable object. Your Committee recommend the following list of officers for the year 1869 : -
President.-JoHN MORRIS, F.G.S., &c., Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the University College, London. Vice Presidents.-C. T. RICHARDSON, M.D.; E. CRESY; J. TENNANT, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.C.S., F.M.S., F.L.S. ; REV. T. WILTSHIRE, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. Treasurer.-W. HISLOP, F.R.A.S., &c., Road, E.O.
177~
St. John Street
General Committee: J. W. BAILEY. O. J. A. MEIJER. REV. JAMES OROMBIE, M.A., J. 'NOYES. F.G.S. J. PICKERING. O. EVANS, F.G.S. G. POTTER, F.R.M.S. J. W. lLOTT. J. THORNE. W. H. LEIGHTON, F.G.S. HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S., T. LOVICK. Z.S. Honorary Secretary.-J. CUMMING, C.E., F.G.S., 7, Montague Place, Russell Square, W.C., and 9, John Street, Adelphi, W. C. Honorary Librarian.-A. BOTT, A.A., F.G.S. Mr. BAILEY and Mr. THORNE have kindly consented to audit our accounts for the past year, and report as follows : -
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ASSOOIATION.
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1868. IN summing up the acts of the Association in their annual retrospect, your Committee feel that it is unreasonable to expect that each year should present some novel topic of interest towards which they may direct the attention of your members, still less can they hope that so striking and instructive it colledion as the Paris Exhibition should annually afford them matter for study and examination; nevertheless, they feel it to be their duty to direct the attention of members to such objects of general public consideration as are intimately connected with the science they especially cultivate. Your Committee would at present more particularly refer to the admitted necessity, as proved by official reports and parliamentary investigation, for extending to this country the benefits, enjoyed by the citizens of other Enropean states, of technical education. They believe that the facilities afforded for the study of geology and the allied sciences, both by the noble institution whose WillIs now shelter the Geologists' Association, and by the sister college from which it has recently migrated, are not yet sufficiently appreciated to confer all the advantages they arc capable of bestowing; hut even wIlen technical education shall have reached that stage of development, which shall put to their fullest use the teaching power and material adjuncts at the disposal of both these bodies, there will yet remain an unsatisfied want, a complementary element which your Committee believe the Association to be peculiarly capable of providing, to which end they suggest the general co-operation of its members. More clearly to bring before them the nature and extent of that co-operation, they desire to remind them that geology is pre-eminently a practical science, requiring for its successful cul-
[59]
2
tivation, resources and aids widely differing in character from those afforded by the observatory, the museum, or the laboratory. The astronomer, the anatomist, or the chemist may pursue his researches within the limits of his habitation, not so the geologist. The preliminaries of his science he must of course acquire in the museum and lecture-room, but the practical application of the principles he has there imbibed can only be made in the field in the face of the vast materials which nature has laid open for his contemplation. Nor, unless specially gifted, will even this suffice j the ordinary student, overwhelmed by the immensity of the mass and multiplicity of its details, knows not whcre to begin their study, and vainly seeking for a clue, abandons with a sigh the attempt to enter the labyrinth, which needed but a friendly hand to enable him to penetrate its inmost recesses. Such guidance the Association offers to the student. Inscribed on its list of membership are names justly re"ered by mature as well as rising geologists, men who are ever ready, out of their accumulated stores of knowledge, to help the learner in his need, and remove from his path the difficulties which inevitably oppress the beginner in any of the sciences of observation, while the student will find among the general rank and file many a zealous fellowworker, who albeit yet unknown to fame, has mastered the preliminary difficulties, and is well qualified by precept and example to communicate to others the advantages himself enjoys. With these elements of usefulness, your Committee feel that, to such branches of technical educ ation as demand instruction in geology and its allied sciences, much aid might be given by the greater development and more systematic organization of your excursions. They would appear, from the occasional fewness of the excursionists, not to be lmiformly successful in selecting the most attractive localities, or most convenient days j they, therefore, particularly invite suggestions from members on those two points j and, further, they would urge any member having special
[60]
3 opportunities, to undertake the charge of an excursion in any locality with which ho may be woll acquainted. The suggestion has more than onco been thrown out that it would be most advisable that a full report should be presonted to tho Association of each excursion, of the phenomena observed, and of the specimens collected. On this head again your Committee earnestly invite co-operation. Thero may be many members whose modesty or inexperience allows them not to undertake the responsibility of a paper, but who might, nevertheless, not be unwilling to draw up a report of the nature referred to. Your Committee trust their call for volunteers may not remain without response. The subjoined list of papers testifies to the satisfactory manner in which the various branches of geology have been represented, the numerous attendance at evening meetings, and the subsequent discussions proves the sustained interest with which they are regarded by the members. The following papers were read during the past year : On Terebratulre, by Professor MORRIS, F.G.S., President. On Agates, by Professor TENNANT, F.G.S., V.P.G.A. On Graptolites, by J. HOPKINSON. On Mount Vesuvius, by JAnIES L. LOBLEY, F.G.S. On The lIineralogical Distribution of the British Flora, by Rev. JAMES CROMBIE, M.A., F.G.S. On Darwin's Theory of Pangenesis, by E. CRESY, V.P.G.A. On Some of the Physical Features of Central America, by Dr. C. CARTER BLAKE, F.G.S., &C. On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Godalming,by C. J. A. Meijer. On the Animals Associated with Pre-historic Man, by HENRY WOOD. WARD, F.G.S., Z.S., &c.
The following papers have been promised for the Ordinary Meetings in 1869 : On Corals, by P. MARTIN DUNCAN, M.B., F.G.S. On Trilobites, by S. W. SALTER, F.G.S. On Foramenifera, by T. RUPERT JONES, F.G.S. On Bivalved Entomostraca, " On Silurian Cephalopoda, by the Rev. TUOMAS WrLTSUIRE, lI.A., F.G.S. V.P.G.A.
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4 On Fossil Botany, by W.
CARRUTHERS", F.L.S., G.S. On , by Rev. J. CROMBIE, M.A., F.G.S. On the Glacial Theory, by E. CRESY, V.P.G.A.
Your Committee felt great satisfaction in their last report in pointing to the balance of £40 Is. ltd.; they feel yet greater this year at being able to state that they have now a balance of .£64 12s. 9d., and no outstanding obligations. During the past year they have been able to devote seven guineas to additions to their library, and the current year's funds will permit of their spending a considerably larger sum on that desirable object. Your Committee recommend the following list of officers for the year 1869 : -
President.-JoHN MORRIS, F.G.S., &c., Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the University College, London. Vice Presidents.-C. T. RICHARDSON, M.D.; E. CRESY; J. TENNANT, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.C.S., F.M.S., F.L.S. ; REV. T. WILTSHIRE, M.A., F.L.S., F.G.S., F.R.G.S., F.R.A.S. Treasurer.-W. HISLOP, F.R.A.S., &c., Road, E.O.
177~
St. John Street
General Committee: J. W. BAILEY. O. J. A. MEIJER. REV. JAMES OROMBIE, M.A., J. 'NOYES. F.G.S. J. PICKERING. O. EVANS, F.G.S. G. POTTER, F.R.M.S. J. W. lLOTT. J. THORNE. W. H. LEIGHTON, F.G.S. HENRY WOODWARD, F.G.S., T. LOVICK. Z.S. Honorary Secretary.-J. CUMMING, C.E., F.G.S., 7, Montague Place, Russell Square, W.C., and 9, John Street, Adelphi, W. C. Honorary Librarian.-A. BOTT, A.A., F.G.S. Mr. BAILEY and Mr. THORNE have kindly consented to audit our accounts for the past year, and report as follows : -
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