454 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PALEONTOLOGY LIBRARY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
 EAftTH 
 
 SCIENCES 
 
 LIBRARY 
 

: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
THE FINDING OF TRUE FACTS: 
 
 BEING AN 
 
 INAUGUEAL ADDEESS, 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE 
 
 FIRST MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 HTH JANUAEY, 1859. 
 
 TOULMIN SMITH, ESQ., 
 
 BABBISTEB-AT-LAW, 
 
 PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION. 
 
 PEINTED FOE THE ASSOCIATION 
 
 BY JOHN EDWARD TAYLOR, 10, LITTLE QUEEN STREET, 
 
 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 
 
 1859. 
 
*#* The Association is not responsible for opinions expressed 
 in the Papers read at its Meetings. 
 
THE FINDING OF TRUE FACTS. 
 
 AN INAUGUEAL ADDEESS. 
 
 IT is not given to man, in following out any branch of natural science, 
 to draw the line of theoretical completeness, and to say to the 
 searcher after truth : te Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther." 
 It is, on the other hand, one of the happiest results of true science, 
 that it raises the perpetual wish for fresh inquiry. The completest 
 theories are most easily shaped when there is the least knowledge. 
 Philosophical systems are not difficult to build up, when you have 
 only a few facts to account for, and are not in much fear of others 
 being thrust in your way which may not harmonize with your sys- 
 tem. In old times, there were "Philosophers" enough, in this 
 sense ; and there was no lack of systems and schools, each of which 
 had followers who denounced the rudeness of every daring intruder, 
 and found that by far the most convenient method to answer the 
 questioner was by the curled lip and self-sufficient sneer. Modern 
 times, and even our own days, abound in such philosophers, quite 
 as much as the days when the Porch and the Grove were frequented 
 at Athens. But the happy difference is this : that these philoso- 
 phers cannot now get the exclusive hearing ; but, however wedded 
 individuals may be to any darling theory, and however jealous a 
 self-constituted coterie may be of intruders upon ground which they 
 would fain hold appropriated as their own domain, the door is now 
 open to all, to seek truth arid pursue it, and to question Nature and 
 grapple with her secrets: and theories, however cherished, and 
 jealousies, however narrow, must, in the end, fall before the accu- 
 mulated light brought to bear by persevering searchers. 
 
 058 A 2 
 
4 
 
 It is not the most laborious and successful searcher who is the 
 most disposed to theorize, or the readiest to quarrel with the fruits 
 won by a fellow labourer. On the contrary, it is your men of small 
 grasp and little range that are ever the quickest to shape a theory, 
 and the most positive to maintain it. The firmer the grasp of the 
 real facts of nature, and the wider the range of inquiry into these, 
 the more cautious becomes the daring of the generalizer ; and the 
 more strongly does he feel the importance of two things : first, 
 that as many facts as possible shall be collected, by which every 
 generalization shall be tried ; and second, that every fact got shall be 
 a true fact. The latter is a point often not enough considered, and 
 which I shall more fully touch on presently, content with now 
 reminding you that it has been said, with great justness, that there 
 are even more ia\$>Q facts than there are false theories in the world. 
 
 Geology is a science that rests exclusively on a knowledge of the 
 outer world, and can only consist, as a science, in the true interpre- 
 tation of the facts which that world shows to us. There is no 
 science to which what I have said as to theories can more thoroughly 
 apply ; and there is no science which has been, and is liable to be, 
 more hindered by false facts. There is none, therefore, in which the 
 gathering up of true facts, and the bringing these together as a 
 common stock for the use of science, can be more needed. A well* 
 known geologist, writing to me, a few days ago, says : " I believe 
 we want workers, not theorizers ; men who will bide their time, and 
 not propounders of pretty theories, for self and immediate glorifica- 
 tion. Much remains to be done in careful work, and well directed 
 energy." The man whose life is passed on some outlying corner of 
 the lias or the coal-formations, and who sees only the special class 
 of facts that surround him, may be very apt to indulge himself in 
 shaping theories. Enlarge his scope, make his gatherings part of 
 an accumulated store taken from a much wider field ; and you check, 
 at once, the disposition to theorize, and teach him that the first 
 truth, and the most necessary of all to be learned, but perhaps the 
 most difficult, is, that no fact can be known to be a true fact till 
 its relations have been studied ; for that there is no one fact in all 
 physical nature, any more than in man's moral and social nature, 
 which can stand by itself, naked and alone, but that the qualities 
 of every fact, and therefore whether this or that statement of it is a 
 
true or a false fact, depend entirely upon the relations in which it 
 stands to other things. 
 
 What I have said is enough for me now to take as ground for 
 the work set to itself by the Association whose opening meeting we 
 hold this evening. Instead of any apology being needed for the 
 forming of such an Association, or of those who have taken part 
 in its formation having reason to give any other heed than a pass- 
 ing smile to the jealousies which, unworthily to themselves, some 
 men have indulged in at the boldness of this attempt, it is matter 
 of surprise that it has been so long delayed. Geology is a study 
 which cannot be followed merely in the laboratory or the closet ; 
 nor can the growth and development with which it deals, be watched 
 among groups collected by the traveller, and brought together in 
 the garden or the menagerie. It can be learnt only in the field. 
 The very power to judge rightly of its facts, and to. marshal them 
 in available order, must be got in the field. Not, of course, that 
 every man must himself have travelled over every " Formation," 
 before he can understand Geology. But, in order to bring home to 
 the mind the bearings of observations made upon many large groups 
 of the facts that lie within this class, the student must have accus- 
 tomed himself to a personal knowledge of the appearances and shapes 
 under which rocks and stratifications are actually found beneath the 
 mere outer covering of the earth. Now it is, with the active mind, 
 a great increase to the mere pleasure of travel, or even of rural wan- 
 derings, to have an object of interest added to the charm which the 
 landscape gives to the eye. Hence, Geology, so soon as it became 
 known as a science, invoked at once, in every corner, the active 
 curiosity and interest of numbers of those who are accustomed to 
 walk abroad with the open eye. Each of these finds that he can 
 gather something which helps to illustrate, if not to add to, that- 
 stock of facts, on the true interpretation of which, by careful com- 
 parison, the truthfulness of the science must depend. But even 
 this, though alone enough to make such an Association as the pre- 
 sent the natural and almost necessary growth of the pursuit of such 
 a science, is by no means the most important reason for its active 
 existence, nor will be the widest sphere of its usefulness. It is 
 within a very few years, comparatively speaking, that the enterprise 
 of this country has become so extraordinarily developed in the way 
 
of those Public Works which deal with the very conformation and 
 substance of the earth's surface. Canals, railways, docks, works of 
 drainage, and other town improvements, are things which make 
 Geology one of the most important and practical of all the sciences 
 that mark our time. To stop now to point out wherein the science 
 of Geology is necessary in every one of these classes of works, is 
 quite unnecessary. Every one knows that the kind and the dip of 
 the Strata are things on which every work of the sort depends, and 
 in the management and adaptation of which the skill of the engineer 
 is shown. We have not, now, the smallest public work done in a 
 little country town, hardly a building of any pretensions put up, but 
 the Surveyor's or Engineer's report professes, at the least, to give 
 one section to the " Geological features." I am sorry to be obliged 
 to say that, while we have thus abundant proof of a knowledge of 
 the importance of this science, such Reports very often contain 
 lamentable proof that the knowledge has halted here. An Associa- 
 tion which gives the means of interchanging experience, and of 
 bringing together facts, and comparing these, cannot, therefore, but 
 be of very great public service ; while the opportunities which those 
 engaged on works of these sorts have, of observing facts and collect- 
 ing illustrations, will be far more likely to be made good use of by 
 them when an Association like the present opens its doors to them, 
 than when facts and observations, however carefully made, have little 
 chance of ever doing other than remain buried in the note- book. 
 An impulse may hence be expected to be given to Geological science, 
 that will be of first-rate importance, as well to the verification of 
 conclusions already drawn, as to the settling of problems that are 
 admitted to stand open, and, even further, to the opening of fields 
 which have been as yet little worked in some cases perhaps hardly 
 suspected to exist. " What we want/' says Mr. Salter, in a late 
 number of an able publication devoted to this science, " what we 
 want, in the present state of Geology, is abundance of good facts ; 
 and these can only be collected by the industry of local observers, 
 who will communicate these results in a tangible form, available for 
 the workers on particular subjects. . . . There is no pleasure," he 
 adds, " so great as in working for a definite object, with the cer- 
 tainty that your results, however small, will aid in attaining it. 
 Many a holiday may be most profitably occupied (which would 
 
otherwise be lost) by confining the attention to one bed, or a set 
 of beds, instead of hammering away under a vague impression that 
 something is to be done, though you know not exactly what."* 
 We hope that, at every meeting of this Association, communications 
 of observed facts will be made by members. The statement of these 
 will appear in the printed minutes of our proceedings ; and these, 
 being circulated among all our members, will convey to every quarter 
 some of those means for comparison, and suggestions for research, 
 which are what the Local Geologist most needs, both to encourage 
 and enlighten him. 
 
 That an Association like the present was much needed, is perhaps 
 quite enough proved by the fact that, within six weeks after the first 
 private meeting had been held, by a few gentlemen, to talk over 
 the proposal, and without any recourse to the ordinary means of 
 attracting public attention, no less than 150 gentlemen sent their 
 written request to be enrolled as Members many of them well 
 known in Geological Science. So far, the success of the attempt 
 far exceeds the most sanguine expectations of the founders of the 
 Association. It remains necessary to its success, that what it pro- 
 poses to do shall be well understood, and carried out with spirit and 
 perseverance. 
 
 And here I will glance at a point to which I should not have 
 thought it worth while to allude, did I not know that, even among 
 the wise and good, there are some timid men, who will be needlessly 
 afraid, at times, that there is a ghost behind the chair. It is really 
 quite past the time when there was any need for dwelling on the 
 avowal, that such an Association as the present has nothing to do 
 with "theories of the earth." Were it not that certain informa- 
 tion has reached me, that there do exist benevolent ghost- seers who 
 have already begun to grow pale, I should not have thought it 
 necessary to remind any one that Geo-logy is not Geo-genesy. 
 We have to learn the facts, and to help towards a true generali- 
 zation of the statement of the relations of the facts, that are to be 
 seen on the earth as we find it. We are not about idly to mystify 
 each other with theories of what took place when the earth was 
 " without form and void." Mr. Ephraim Jenkinson put that matter 
 on its true footing, when he sagely remarked to the respectable Dr. 
 
 * 'The Geologist,' vol. i. p. 301. 
 
8 
 
 Primrose, that " the cosmogony, or creation of the world, has puzzled 
 the philosophers of every age." If any member of this Association 
 should attempt to waste our time and wander from our purpose, by 
 dancing through the mazes of so notorious a puzzle, it will be the 
 very simple duty of whoever occupies the Chair which I have now 
 the honour to fill, to remind him that this is not a stage for the dis- 
 play of any theory of the earth's origin that he may happen to 
 patronize ; but that, if he has been so happy as to dig out of this 
 veritable earth, as we actually find it, any of those truths which it 
 is always ready to reveal to the patient searcher, we shall be de- 
 lighted to listen to the story of the finding of his treasures. 
 
 The aim of the founders of this Association is, that those who, 
 whether from the intelligent interest which the thoughtful man 
 must always take in the phenomena that surround him, or from the 
 professional pursuits in which they are engaged, are in the habit of 
 searching among and handling the groups of facts which relate to 
 the science of Geology, shall find, here, a means of intercommunica- 
 tion, by which the facts gathered up by each shall be continually 
 recorded, and the relations they have to one another, and to former 
 facts, be able to be continually brought forward and tested. It is 
 for those who are thus actively engaged in looking into Nature, that 
 we exist as an Association. It would be doing a great injustice to 
 the number of intelligent men who satisfy the natural curiosity of 
 the student, by supplying him with specimens for scientific study, 
 if we interfered, in any way, with the mercantile demand that the 
 study of Geology has raised for fossils and rock minerals. The result 
 will, unquestionably, be the reverse : for the extension of the sound 
 study of every subject, always extends the demand for all the 
 means to that study. But it is necessary that no mistake should 
 exist as to the fact that this Association has not the least idea of 
 keeping stores of specimens, to be distributed to its members. Its 
 printed proceedings, besides announcing every fresh finding of hidden 
 treasures, will record every communication received from those 
 among our Members who desire to exchange specimens of one For- 
 mation, with which their locality happens to abound, for specimens 
 of other Formations with which they have not the same means of 
 becoming familiar. It will thus be a most valuable assistance to 
 the active collector. The line thus drawn is, however, well marked. 
 
9 
 
 It may happen that some of those who deal in Illustrations of the 
 science may join our Body ; for, happily, there are many who have 
 thus become instrumental in the diffusion of the means of scientific 
 study on account of the love they bear to science. But their be- 
 coming members of our Body will unquestionably be notwithstand- 
 ing, and certainly never because of, this incident of their occupation. 
 "We propose indeed to establish a Museum : but we have no idea of 
 filling our cabinets with the sweepings of the over-crowded cabinets 
 of old collectors. The collections which now exist at the British 
 Museum, and in Jermyn Street, already belong to us all. They 
 have been paid for by our money, and their curators are maintained 
 in their several posts, in each, for our behoof. This Association 
 will be the means of making the value of each of those collections 
 more known than they now are; and thus the labours of those 
 whom we pay to fulfil their duties there, and to whose active assis- 
 tance we are therefore entitled, as matter of right, will, by-and-by, 
 become more appreciated ; but we have no intention of repeating 
 the folly of filling cellars with valuable specimens which are only 
 accumulated to be hidden. We intend to collect as strict a series 
 of type specimens of each Formation as we are able ; and to confine 
 our own cabinets to such a series of type specimens. We hope that, 
 while specimens of all characteristic rocks will appear in their most 
 instructive forms, we shall have the corals and the trilobites of the 
 lowest ocean-bed Formations, together with a full set of those Tere- 
 bratula which tell the pretentious parvenu who boasts himself of 
 the Battle Abbey Roll, within how very little a compass is contained 
 the only real aristocrat that is to be found in nature. Though one 
 whose name we all affectionately respect,- I think I may say as much 
 of such a man Hugh Miller, is no longer among us, we hope 
 that the Old Red Sandstone may be illustrated by its Ptencthys and 
 Cephalaspis, and by those beautiful corals which distinguish it from 
 other Formations. The Mountain Limestone none of us can mistake, 
 if we limit it to a few forms among the encrinites, and to the very 
 characteristic shells which it yields in such perfection. In the Coal 
 layers we shall have more difficulty : for where does the material 
 end ? Not to mention any other of the forms of past life which it 
 yields, can you wander by a pit's mouth, nay, can you take up a 
 piece of coal to put it on the fire, or raise a handful of ashes from 
 
 B 
 
10 
 
 beneath the smouldering grate, without finding material for delight- 
 ful study and most instructive observation ? In the Magnesian 
 Limestone and New Red Sandstone we are less likely to be in- 
 volved in difficulty on this score. But in the Lias and the Oolite 
 rich in treasures of all kinds the hoe and the rake must be un- 
 sparingly used, or our cabinets will soon get overrun with weeds. 
 The Wealden will not overcrowd us ; and should we obtain the en- 
 tire head of an Iguanodon, we shall not object to find a place for it. 
 The chalk, though so abounding in stores of fossil wealth, will be 
 less difficult to deal with than many other formations, as regards type 
 specimens ; for no one can mistake its most characteristic and beau- 
 tiful group the Ventriculida, or the more marked forms of its 
 representatives among the oysters, chambered-shells, and star-fish, 
 not to mention now any other of its very beautiful forms. The Ter- 
 tiary, in its so markedly different layers, with its own fruits and its 
 shells and its mammals, as well as its numerous forms related to the de- 
 nizens of the earlier earth, will give more trouble ; while the highly 
 interesting Diluvial Beds which^verlie it, are rich in an abundance 
 from which we shall, however, with less difficulty, be able to select 
 a few to serve as types. Be the difficulties which we shall thus 
 altogether encounter what they mayi our hope is, that we may be 
 able, by degrees, to form a Cabinet which shall be truly typical in 
 its character ; and our intention is, that, while we give the means 
 of constant intercommunication between observers in different parts, 
 and so promote the exchange of specimens between our members, 
 what we retain, as the property of the Association, shall be limited 
 to groups that will always be instructive. 
 
 I am happy to be able to say and I hope that this will be 
 accepted as an acknowledgment of several communications that we 
 have already received, from distant Members of this Association, 
 offers of sets of fossils that will illustrate several of the main For- 
 mations. 
 
 It is our belief that every member will, from time to time, come 
 across facts that will be interesting to the others ; and that, by the 
 unconstrained statement of these at our meetings, and recording 
 them on our printed minutes, comparisons may be made, by actual 
 workers in the field, that will equally throw light upon a correspon- 
 dent's questions, and instruct all those who are desiring to get at 
 
11 
 
 an actual knowledge of the sort of facts, upon the accumulation of 
 which the science of Geology must be entirely built up. 
 
 And here I am led to a branch of the subject from which, though 
 I touch on it with some unwillingness, I do not wish to shrink ; for 
 I am convinced of its very great importance. I mean the wretched 
 pedantry that disfigures so much of modern so-called science, seek- 
 ing to cover superficialism by a pompous show of unmeaning words. 
 I do not hesitate to say that one of my own strongest reasons for 
 hailing the suggestion for the formation of this Association has been, 
 that it is quite time that Englishmen, when they deal with science, 
 began to talk English, and ceased to grimace in an unintelligible 
 jargon. 
 
 It is well enough perhaps, at any rate it is politic, in those 
 countries where true humanity is dead, and where the very breath 
 of human self-respect and freedom is regarded as a pestilence, that 
 great pretensions should be made of State honour done to science. 
 True science is dishonoured, not exalted, by a policy so selfish and 
 so transparent, though, unhappily, so successful. The greater the 
 halo of mysticism and pretence that can be thrown round science, 
 the better the end of the enslavers of the human mind is gained ; 
 for they know that, the more intricately they thus succeed in wrap- 
 ping the toils of a mock intelligence round the minds of men, the 
 more easily will they succeed in keeping them from being engaged 
 with the worthy thoughts that ennoble the MAN. " Mere memory 
 is sought to be developed at the expense of understanding, free 
 thought, and creative power; and thus are instilled passive obe- 
 dience and blind submission on all political- and religious subjects." 
 It is thus that the young Prussian is taught to imagine himself 
 educated, and there are some in England whom the delusion of 
 words is unhappily able so to blind that they hold him up and call 
 him educated, because he is, at a given age, drilled up into a ma- 
 chine capable of no end of parrot repetitions, out of the "isms" 
 and the " ologies " while, of that which alone constitutes real edu- 
 cation, the education of the man, for the duties of life, as the 
 free citizen of a free state, he is carefully kept in hopeless dark- 
 ness ; and there is no country in Europe where this last and only 
 worth-having education is, in any sense or manner, given, except 
 England. Bat what thus marks the crafty systems of miscalled 
 
12 
 
 education, as applied to the masses, extends its effects to those who 
 follow out the higher branches of science. Not perceiving the snare 
 into which they fall, too easy victims, they play into the hands of 
 the enemies of human thought and human freedom. What ought 
 to be Science is made into Mystery. And there is far too great a 
 disposition to follow this example, (often, perhaps, unconsciously,) 
 in England. This is particularly shown in the language and style 
 that are adopted. I purposely forbear to quote examples : but it 
 must be familiar to every one of you that you can hardly take up a 
 so-called "scientific" book without finding it so interlarded with 
 phrases and words which never were English, and which bear no 
 intelligible meaning, that science is made repulsive, instead of at- 
 tractive, by those who profess to be the masters of it. 
 
 True science can be no mystery. A Faraday does not think it 
 beneath his dignity to give popular lectures, on the science which 
 he has illuminated, to a Christmas audience. We do not live in an 
 Egyptian age, when a few self-assuming priests shall have one lan- 
 guage which is to be understood only by the initiated, and another 
 which they condescend to employ in converse with the common 
 people. We live in an age w r hen the boast is paraded that science 
 and art are applied to every purpose of common life. Then, Gen- 
 tlemen, it is high time that science and art shall be taught in the 
 language of common life, and not be smothered by a jargon which 
 is as repulsive to good taste as it is obstructive to the spread of 
 knowledge. The ridiculous jargon into which what is miscalled 
 scientific phraseology has got, latterly, to run, is wholly without ex- 
 cuse. It is not Latin and it is not Greek : nay, it is generally as 
 unintelligible to those familiar with both those languages as it is to 
 any one bred only in the vernacular, and often even more mislead- 
 ing to the former than to the latter. It is certain that it is not 
 English. We inherit a language more copious than the Greek 
 ever was, and one which is peculiarly adaptable for the compound- 
 ing of words ; and which, therefore, may be most readily moulded 
 to the expression of new forms of fact and thought. The man who 
 is unable to express, in English, whatever he has of science to teach, 
 stands confessed as simply unready, and as making pretensions to 
 what does not in truth belong to him. Instead of being a man of 
 real science, he is a charlatan, who seeks to disguise the ignorance 
 
13 
 
 that he feels, by an attempt to throw,, under cover of fine phrases, 
 dust in the eyes of those who listen to him. It is time that we put 
 off charlatans, as the object of our worship, and took to knowledge 
 as a thing worth following. When this is done, intelligent men 
 will not tolerate a man who cannot express his ideas in English. 
 Every one will feel that the man is an Impostor, and not a man of 
 science, who, if he pretends to have anything to tell, cannot say it in 
 language intelligible to every man of ordinary education, instead of 
 wrapping it up in an unintelligible jargon. It was well said of one 
 of the old Philosophers of Greece, that he, the first, brought down 
 Philosophy from the clouds, and gave it a home in the dwellings of 
 men. We want a Socrates now as much as ever ; and if this As- 
 sociation does any good, not its least claim to respect will be, that 
 it will compel men who pretend to be scientific, to talk less bad 
 Latin and worse Greek, and to try, at least, what they can make of 
 English. 
 
 For the use of the unmeaning jargon which, upon the principle 
 Incus a non lucendo, has thus, of late years, come into fashion as 
 "scientific," that is, to hinder science, there cannot be the pre- 
 tence raised that it is a " universal language." The science of 
 Englishmen is wanted in England, not in France or Germany. It 
 were no excuse, therefore, for using a jargon which is certainly not 
 intelligible in England, even though it were intelligible in France 
 and Germany. But it is no more intelligible there than here. It 
 is purely a repulsive and fantastical pedantry everywhere; and it is 
 above all things necessary that those who really value science, and 
 desire its diffusion, and wish well to the spread of knowledge, should 
 have the courage to denounce, in the strongest manner, as I feel 
 it my duty, in delivering an Inaugural Address to this Association, 
 most emphatically to do, this most monstrous of the abuses which 
 disfigure the literature of our day. 
 
 Certain " terms of art," as they are properly called, must always 
 be in use. This is but another form of " idiom," and has no affinity 
 with the jargon of which I have been speaking. Though one who 
 has paid no attention to Geology may not be aware, on the moment, 
 of the sense in which the words " fault " and " dip " are used, in 
 regard to the layers of the earth's surface, each of those words con- 
 veys, at once, some idea to the hearer's mind ; which a few words 
 
of explanation are enough to make him never forget how to apply 
 to the instances in which the word is used by the Geologist. There 
 is no matter of science which might not be equally illustrated. 
 
 If language was given to man, as the great diplomatist declared, 
 to conceal the thoughts, certainly the modern so-called scientific 
 world is very successful in the fulfilment of the end. There is an 
 older and wiser authority who tells us that it is the place of careful 
 art to conceal the show of art. It is plain that this authority is one 
 of those Classics that has not come within the " humane letters " of 
 those who use the barbarous jargon under which what ought to be 
 science is now so often hidden in impenetrable darkness. 
 
 It will be well understood that I do not now allude to the at- 
 tempt at a universal language in Classification. That such a uni- 
 versal language should be used, if possible, for this purpose, is 
 highly important, in order to secure the identification of objects. 
 By all means let Latin be made the chosen vehicle. But it is de- 
 sirable that there should be some consistency even here. Names 
 newly given should always be descriptive descriptive of the class, 
 and distinctive of the particular group to which the individual be- 
 longs. Instead of this, how often do we find names given just to 
 save trouble to the slovenly namer which are formed by an unpro- 
 nounceable compound of the name of some obscurity whom it is 
 sought to rescue, thus, from the oblivion that all such vanity deserves. 
 
 I shall not be suspected of favouring, in these remarks, the notion 
 that any man who pretends to follow science, may make what changes 
 he likes in names and classification. There is a morality in science 
 as well as elsewhere. No one has a right to disturb or overlook the 
 arrangement given, after full investigation, to a group of objects; 
 unless he who assumes to disturb it can and does produce reasons 
 and proofs that the arrangement thus already given is founded on 
 mistake or untruth. A name once given to an object unnamed be- 
 fore, provided it be a real, that is a descriptive, name, remains the 
 name by which scientific men ought thenceforth to know it. Else, 
 there would be no end to the confusion that would arise. Examples 
 enough and too many might be given, of the confusion which has 
 arisen through the neglect of so sound a rule. This rule is, however, 
 subject to the condition that, if it is shown that the, name first given 
 has been given under a wrong impression of the relations of the 
 
15 
 
 object, when those relations have been further studied, and proof is 
 given that the true position of the object is thus better known, it 
 will be necessary to range it in its proper group and place ; which 
 may often require that the generic, and sometimes also that the 
 specific, name that has heretofore distinguished it, shall be changed. 
 
 It has been thought, in forming the present Association, that 
 many who have opportunities of collecting geological illustrations, 
 will be thus induced to go out into the field, to whom the stimulus 
 to this effort has hitherto been wanting. It may not, therefore, be 
 out of place if, besides offering a warning against falling down in 
 worship before the barbarisms of modern so-called science, I make a 
 few remarks as to the material methods that may best be adopted in 
 the collection of specimens. I shall speak of nothing which I have 
 not myself found, as a collector in the field, to be the most useful. 
 
 The hammers which I have found the best in use are those manu- 
 factured by Messrs. Knight of Poster Lane, in the City of London. 
 There is one of these in particular, which I take to be the most 
 handy and useful hammer that has been yet devised. Messrs. 
 Knight know it, I believe, as Percival Johnson's hammer. It com- 
 bines, in one convenient shape, the pick, the hatchet, and the ham- 
 mer. For the chalk this hammer is invaluable. But it is no 
 less so in working at many other rocks, especially when they are 
 fresh cut, and unhardened (as many soon become) by the weather. 
 Nothing could be better in getting those nearly the most beautiful 
 of geological specimens, the slabs of Dudley limestone. Of course, 
 in working harder and more massive beds, the simple hammer and 
 the chisel must be used. The best sort of hammer in the latter case, 
 is one that is square at one end, and cut down equally on two of 
 its sides to a narrow edge at the other end. 
 
 In packing fossils, a mistake is often made, which has spoiled 
 many a good specimen. I allude to the use of cotton-wool. There 
 cannot be a greater mistake. It is pretty well known that, of the 
 most delicate fossils of the chalk, I have, in my own cabinet, the 
 largest collection that exists. The whole of these, with very few 
 exceptions, were got out of the rock by my own hand, and brought 
 home, over long distances, through ground where no railway eased 
 the dangers that beset the carriage. Yet I believe that I never 
 found a specimen damaged in the carriage home. The first rule is, 
 
16 . 
 
 always, if you can, to get out the rock on both sides, that is, the 
 fossil and the impression of it, when it is a delicate specimen : 
 then tie these two together, strongly and tightly, and wrap the whole 
 in firm, but not too thick, paper. If you cannot get both sides, 
 still avoid cotton-wool as you would the plague. It sticks to the 
 damp fossil, and can never be entirely removed, and it does not pro- 
 tect it at all. Even where such a fossil as a tooth, jaw, or other brittle 
 specimen, is got out quite free from the rock, the only way in which 
 cotton- wool can be safely used, is for you first to wrap the fossil in 
 silver paper, and then enclose it, very loosely, in a soft layer of what 
 is called the " medicated" cotton-wool.* In all other cases, take a 
 piece of paper, Hugh Miller used to say that there was nothing like 
 a Conservative Newspaper to wrap fossils in, and wrap it upright, 
 and tightly, round the edges of the fossil, the latter being held at 
 a right angle to the paper. The fossil is thus enclosed in a paper 
 tube, touching it only at the outer edge. Close this tube, in one 
 fold, flat and firm, at the bottom. Draw it gently over at the top, 
 and fold it down, leaving as much of a hollow as you can, close over 
 the face of the specimen. Pack all your specimens closely, side by 
 side, in chip boxes. Of course the heaviest must be put at the 
 bottom. The paper will then be stiff enough to bear a double row 
 without injury, and elastic enough to ensure the whole safe from any 
 injury through the shake of travelling. When you get home, place 
 each on a clean stone, and gently but thoroughly syringe the face of 
 each with clean soft water, applied with a fine garden syringe. Most 
 specimens will come from under this process in a state you would 
 not deem possible ; every edge sharp and clear, and structure 
 plainly seen which you will search for in vain if you do not adopt 
 the method which, from large experience of its use, I recommend. 
 The less delicate fossils do not need such care. But all should be 
 wrapped in paper, with enough folds to save them, by the elasticity 
 of the paper, from injury through the rubbing, in carriage, of one 
 against the other. If a fossil is got from the seacoast, always soak 
 it for a couple of days in soft water, frequently changed. Then 
 bake it in a slow oven, till it is thoroughly dry. You will thus 
 save it from that action of the salt which has ruined so many a 
 
 * The "medicated" cotton-wool is the common cotton-wool carded out and freed 
 from the lumps and knots which are found in common sorts. 
 
17 
 
 beautiful specimen. If you see bones or other promising marks at 
 the edge of a broken piece of rock, collect all the pieces you can 
 where it is found ; place them in their proper positions, bedded in 
 plaster of Paris, on a tray, or in a box ; then clear away from one of 
 the surfaces, till you come down to the face of the fossil of which the 
 broken edge showed the section. Such specimens, when thoroughly 
 cleaned, and bone specimens in general, will be both strengthened 
 and greatly improved in appearance by being washed with gelatine, 
 which is readily done with a large and soft camel's-hair brush. 
 
 If a fossil is found broken, or breaks in carriage, nothing is easier 
 than to mend it. Get the pieces perfectly clean and dry. If it is 
 lias or oolite, or other hard rock, use thin hot glue, applied to both 
 surfaces, and these will join perfectly. Never use "cement" of 
 any sort. If it is chalk, it requires that, before using the glue, the 
 dry chalk should be well saturated with thin gum or gelatine, or 
 very thin glue; otherwise the pieces will not hold together long; 
 for the glue, when hard, fastens on to only a thin coat of the chalk, 
 which has so little of binding hold to the rest of the body of the 
 chalk, that it will, with a slight force, come away. Many fine speci- 
 mens in the British Museum are seen in this state. 
 
 At the pits and cuttings, there are often very intelligent men who 
 may be readily taught to know the kind of fossils of which you are 
 in search. Such assistance affords a much more desirable resource 
 than the " dealers" who, entirely uninformed, sometimes spring up 
 in such neighbourhoods. As to the latter, you must always be on 
 guard. The most ingenious devices are had recourse to by them 
 to mislead the unwary. There is a well-known case of a sheep's 
 jaw in chalk being offered for sale by such a dealer. Always look 
 with suspicion on very fine-looking specimens of star-fish, cidaris 
 with spines, ophiura, pentacrinite, etc. Even fishes are not diffi- 
 cult to manufacture. But you must not despise such dealers. You 
 may sometimes get a valuable specimen through their hands, though 
 distorted by the ignorance of the dealer. I obtained, thus, the large 
 limb of the pterodactyle from the chalk, which Professor Owen has 
 figured ; but which, when it came to me (having been broken in 
 getting it from the rock), had the parts displaced in a most pre- 
 posterous manner. The finest specimen of a spine of the Chalk 
 Sharks which I have ever seen, was obtained in the same way, from 
 
18 
 
 a dealer. I saw it had been patched : I soaked it in water, so as to 
 separate the patched-up pieces, and found that the end had been 
 put upside down in the middle, and the middle wrong way upwards 
 at the end ; and these ridiculous blunders had been made, notwith- 
 standing that, when it had been well soaked, and the loose chalk 
 all cleaned away, the pieces fitted exactly together in their right 
 places. Tricks of the same sort will be found in Lias specimens, 
 and those from other formations. 
 
 It will save much labour if specimens are cut down, before pack- 
 ing, to the smallest size. This requires a knack, and is by no means 
 so easy as may seem. The schoolboy thinks that the carpenter's plane 
 works along almost by itself; he tries his hand, and finds out his 
 mistake. So, to see an experienced hand split a pebble, or chip off 
 a flint, looks very easy indeed. Try it, and the fact is found very 
 different. Description, in a few words, is almost impossible. I 
 will only say that, to chip down a flint, you must use a hammer not 
 too heavy, and must give, with the square end, a short, quick, light 
 blow, struck rather sloping outwards. If you are handy in this, you 
 will thus get slice after slice with the greatest ease. If your object 
 is only to lighten the mass, it is soon done. If you want to examine 
 the flint, you can thus get chips thin enough to examine with the 
 microscope. 
 
 A vast number of beautiful fossils are found, in many different 
 sorts of rocks, both limestone and sandstone, in the inside of mo- 
 derately sized rounded masses or pebbles, but not water-worn of 
 a more or less oval form. It may be worth making a remark, as to 
 getting to the inside of these, which will be found universally appli- 
 cable as to them, and to be of nearly the same value in flints and 
 fragments of rock. Such masses, whether loose pebbles or in rocks, 
 are formed by that holding together of like to like which you may see 
 every day showing itself more or less strikingly in water, quicksilver, 
 and numberless other forms. The attraction is between the particles 
 of the same material. If uriinterfered with, every mass would be 
 round. But if a long leaf gets enclosed in a forming mass, it inter- 
 feres with the attraction of like to like, and this attraction goes 
 on round the edges of the leaf instead of round the centre ; and so 
 the body becomes flattened and oval. Another consequence follows ; 
 namely, that, where the leaf has fallen, the lime- or sand-stone has 
 
19 
 
 much less fast a hold than between the parts where like has touched 
 like. Consequently, a blow, rightly given, is quite certain to open 
 to you the enclosed fossil, as clean as the oyster-knife does the oyster. 
 Give your blow generally at the end, in the longest diameter of the 
 pebble ; and never with the square head of a hammer, but with the 
 narrow edge, so that your blow shall fall on one line. The following 
 this hint may save many a fossil from hopeless breakage. Though 
 there is no such certain guide in many flints, there is generally some- 
 thing to give a hint ; and you may always be sure that, be it flint or 
 any hard rock, the least hold-fasting, and therefore the most certain 
 line of breakage, is in the direction where a fossil lies. Thus 1 
 found in the middle of a large flint, without any outward mark, one 
 side of a whole jaw, full of teeth. 
 
 How wide the range is where the search has to be made for those 
 facts which this Association hopes to gather together, it were im- 
 possible for me now to enter on. We have already enrolled members 
 in Peru, in Chili, and elsewhere abroad, besides those scattered over 
 England. The variety of kind and condition, both of organic re- 
 mains and of rock, is so great, while knowledge on every one of 
 them is valuable, that it is to be hoped that the different loca- 
 lities will be well worked up for what each is capable of yielding. 
 We do not expect to turn up in England the entire body of a mam- 
 moth, with flesh and skin and hair, as was, fifty years ago, dis- 
 played to the marvelling eyes of men in Siberia ; a discovery that 
 cannot but remind one of that old legend of our forefathers' faith, 
 according to which, long before man lived on the earth, the huge 
 beast Audhumla lived, and sustained her life by licking the rime- 
 frost from the primeval salt rocks. But from the Mammoth and 
 the Mastodon, whose remains, though less complete than in Siberia, 
 are in fact widely found in England, to the numberless but not less 
 wonderful little creatures which can be seen only by aid of the 
 microscope, the variety is wide. 
 
 I remarked, at the beginning, on the need there is to distinguish 
 between false facts and true ones. This can only be done by noting 
 every circumstance in the conditions and relations of each. It is, 
 first of all, necessary for every man who really loves truth, to be 
 firmly persuaded that he has no right to be a quack : he has no 
 right to pretend to search nature, unless he has first mastered the 
 
20 
 
 principles on which the idea of the UNITY of Creation rests. There 
 is not such a thing as Solitude in nature. As freedom and free 
 institutions do not consist in every man doing exactly what he likes ; 
 but in every man knowing and remembering that everybody else 
 has equal rights with himself, and in those equal rights being equally 
 respected by all ; so, all the facts of every branch of science are 
 more or less intimately related to each other ; and, unless the Rela- 
 tions of every alleged fact be well considered, the statement of it 
 will turn out to have been, not the statement of a truth, but of a 
 false fact, one which will be delusive and misleading, instead of 
 leading on to further truth. I can illustrate this highly important 
 point by a few instances, that touch the relations, as well between 
 different remains of animal life as between the conditions of parti- 
 cular animal remains and rocks, and between different rocks. 
 
 Some years ago, I found, in what seemed, superficially, the solid 
 wall of a familiar chalk-pit, about thirty feet from the top, a horse's 
 tooth. The naked fact was, a horse's tooth found in the chalk. 
 If I had been content to stop there, I might have announced indeed 
 a grand discovery, as everybody knows that such a fossil had never 
 yet been found in such a place. But I knew that the fact which 
 seemed thus naked, was extremely unlikely to be a real fact, being 
 contrary to the Unity of Science, so far as this has yet been ascer- 
 tained in regard to such a matter. So, instead of glorifying myself 
 on the discovery of a horse in the chalk, I went to work to prove that 
 it was not a true fact at all. And I succeeded. The chalk seemed 
 solid enough; but, by careful examination, I became thoroughly 
 satisfied that there had been a crack in the chalk bed, reaching up 
 to the surface of the earth ; and that this tooth which I still show 
 in my cabinet to warn the too eager discoverer had, in the course 
 of ages, got washed down through this crack, though the latter was 
 imperceptible without close search; and had so become lodged 
 where I found it. This is an example of the relations between a 
 fossil and the rock in which it is found. 
 
 Let me take another example, and this shall be one of the re- 
 lations between one form of animal life and another. All who are 
 familiar with the chalk, know that different shapes of the oyster are 
 very common in its beds. These vary much. On the varieties I can- 
 not now enter. But no one has long worked the chalk without 
 
21 
 
 meeting with specimens of the oyster wherein the outside of both 
 shells is strongly stamped with a mark as if they had been sealed 
 with some regular figure of the diaper fashion. You have the two 
 shells. You think you have all that is needed ; and I have often 
 been amused to see how collectors have been puzzled to make out 
 what this mark can be. The explanation is, in fact, as plain as 
 possible. There exists, in the chalk, a very remarkable group of 
 fossils, called the Yentriculidse, distinguished by a structure which 
 was only discovered a few years ago, and the discovery of which 
 showed that mathematical forms are not unknown in animal life, as 
 had been before supposed.* Though these fossils are, as we find 
 them, very delicate, it has been proved that, when living, their forms 
 were not only durable, but particularly firm. Now, the oysters, 
 many of which were, in truth, but parasites, were very fond of 
 settling their young on these Yentriculidee. Some of the oysters, 
 after making a small fixed bottom of shell, throw up a rising wall ; 
 others creep, so to speak, with their shell along the surface of 
 whatsoever it may be that they are first fixed to. Those of the 
 latter that are fixed on the sides of the Yentriculidae, fasten them- 
 selves with closeness to its shape, and follow all its indentations. 
 The new shell is formed, in both valves, just beyond the edge of the 
 animal within, so that both valves which are then of the finest 
 thinness take the same impression. Though the animal afterwards 
 grows, and layer after layer is added to the shell as the animal does 
 thus grow, so that the valves become thick, and the inner surface 
 of each valve becomes quite smooth, the outer surface of the shell 
 bears for ever, on each valve, the stamp which was first thus got. 
 
 The last example shows that even an actual fossil often cannot be 
 understood unless the nature of others be also understood. But it 
 is no less certain that a mere mass of rock may itself be directly 
 suggestive, and may open to the observer glimpses of something be- 
 yond what he yet knows ; thus still teaching that each fact that can 
 be found is related to facts beyond its mere self. Let me take one 
 example to illustrate this. At the bottom of the London Clay you 
 find what are called "Plumpudding Stones;" which are, indeed, 
 amazingly like plum -pud dings, with the small difference that they 
 
 * See " The Ventriculidse of the Chalk ; their Microscopic structure, affinities, and 
 classification," etc., by Toulmin Smith. 1848. 
 
22 
 
 would be very awkwardly trying to the teeth. Above these is the 
 London Clay: below is the chalk. What story do these stones 
 tell ? They make it plain that, between the deposit of the chalk 
 and of the London Clay, times and ages elapsed of which some ac- 
 count ought to be attempted to be given. Mints have been washed 
 out of the solid chalk ; and these have been rolled on some ancient 
 shore till they have become discoloured and rounded. That shore 
 has afterwards become a deep sea-bed; and these pebbles have 
 become cemented together by a natural cement which is actually 
 harder than the flint itself. Ages have passed on ; and the rock 
 thus formed has itself been upheaved, and broken into fragments ; 
 and these broken fragments have themselves formed the pebbles of 
 some later shore, which had been rolling to and fro, and had done 
 its work, and again sunk beneath the deep sea, before the oldest of 
 the London Clay began to be deposited. Here, methinks, we see 
 an outline Table of Contents of a wonderful time; of which all 
 the chapters are at present lost. Perhaps we may recover some of 
 them. I give the illustration to show how much of a story a single 
 pebble may carry within it, if looked at with reference to those re- 
 lations which necessarily belong to it. 
 
 In using the microscope, every one knows how often it happens 
 that the casual gazer declares himself unable to see what the careful 
 investigator sees clearly before him. The reason is plain. The one 
 comes all unprepared with any previous knowledge of the Relations 
 of the things belonging to the class of object. The other looks at 
 every object aided by the light of that impression of Unity which 
 long and frequent previous study of related objects has made a 
 living part of his active intelligence. 
 
 The Law of Unity, namely, that everything we can find has its 
 relations to something else, and is but one form of illustration of a 
 wide-spread principle, is the light by which every fact of Geology, 
 as of natural science in every branch, must be studied. One man 
 looks at a strange creature taken from the ocean, and sees in it a 
 marvel, which is so wondrous that he makes out of it a supporter to 
 the heraldic device of the nation that boasts herself Queen of the 
 Seas. Another bethinks him, while he looks curiously at the same 
 creature, that the Law of Unity does not deal in monsters, even 
 to support the honour of the British name ; and he sets to work, 
 
23 
 
 with saw and chisel, at an equal distance on the other side the mid- 
 line of the skull, and lo ! he finds the fellow-tooth of that which, 
 having enormously outgrown its fellow, men have wrongly called the 
 Unicorn. 
 
 It is, then, a careful search after the RELATIONS of every fact, 
 that alone can enable any fact to be safely asserted as a true one. 
 Men had seen rocks and fossils long before the time of Lyell : but 
 it may be said, with thorough truth, that it was Lyell's putting 
 forth, and giving proof of, the proposition that the changes that are 
 to be seen on the earth's surface are due to causes now in opera- 
 tion, that first made Geology a Science ; and thus established one 
 point of Unity which everything else has since clustered round and 
 illustrated. And it seems to me that the very remarkable series 
 of observations recorded by Mr. Eainey, of St. Thomas's Hospital, 
 in his late work " On the mode of formation of shells of animals, 
 of bone, and of several other structures, by a process of molecular 
 coalescence demonstrable in certain artificially-formed products," 
 heralds discoveries equal in importance, while similar in kind, to 
 the great truth which Lyell first put forth. The reverent sense of 
 admiration which contemplates Unity and design and order in all 
 things, is a far nobler sense than that mere vacant Wonder which 
 sees, indeed, a marvel, but understands it not, and is afraid to try to 
 understand it. The mere looker at the solitary naked thing which 
 he calls a fact, is but an Idiot by the side of him who knows that 
 every individual thing he sees is the illustration of some far wider 
 fact some UNITY in nature, which makes it necessary for him to 
 turn the illustration over and over in every possible shape, if he 
 would hope to get at any true light, and to be anything other than 
 a vacant wonderer or a hollow theorizer. 
 
 But I have detained you too long. Let me only add that, if this 
 Association is to become a useful means in the progress of the 
 science whence we take our name, it must be by its members put- 
 ting, one and all, their shoulders to the wheel. Our very basis rests 
 on the giving of a united effort for a common end. It is not any 
 two or three of us that can carry the work out. For myself, unex- 
 pectedly asked to take this Chair, I have only consented to do so 
 because I would not be backward to help in what I believe to be a 
 good work ; but I can only do it with the avowal that my engage- 
 
24 
 
 meuts, far removed from following out a science which I love, 
 make it impossible for me to bestow on it the time I wish. So far 
 as I am able, I will not be found wanting. There are many here 
 far abler than I am to give the aid that is needed. Let me call on 
 each to do what he is able towards collecting well-investigated facts ; 
 and to bring these before us, so that we may compare them, and, 
 after a fair sifting, add them to the common stock of human know- 
 ledge. We shall thus accomplish a work, the value of which will 
 soon become felt, and which will satisfy ourselves and those who are 
 watching us a few with jealousy, but most with hope that " The 
 Geologists' Association " has not been formed in vain. 
 
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