Abstract
Two octogenarian fellows of the Royal Society celebrated their birthdays this week. Sir Archibald Geikie, O.M., the Nestor of British geology, who was elected to the Royal Society so long ago as 1865, attained the age of eighty-eight on December 28, and another distinguished geologist, Sir W. Boyd Dawkins, oelected to the Society in 1867, was eighty-five on December 26. To both of them the congratulations of all scientific workers will be heartily accorded. Sir Archibald Geikie, who figured as a “Scientific Worthy” in NATURE thirty-one years ago (January 5, 1893), has a world-wide reputation. As a geologist, and as the author of the “Text-book of Geology,” originally published in 1882, and of other standard works on geology and geography, he is known everywhere. This is in great measure due to the way in -which Sir Archibald is able to quicken interest in his subject by the expression of his deep and intense feeling for Nature. No one has done more to link geology with appreciation of the natural beauty of scenery. His work as an original investigator in geology and as a writer of inspiring volumes on this subject and on physical geography won for him the Royal medal of the Royal Society in 1896. From 1908 until 1913 Sir Archibald served as president of the Royal Society, while he was president of the British Association at the Edinburgh meeting in 1892. For the period 1882–1901, he was Director-General of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom and Director of the Museum of Practical Geology. In spite of his advanced age, Sir Archibald maintains his active interest in both science and literature, and so recently as 1918 he produced a notable volume of Memoirs of John Michell, who died in 1793, one of the early workers in geology.
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Current Topics and Events. Nature 112, 947–950 (1923). https://doi.org/10.1038/112947b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/112947b0