ance that, only at one meeting early
in the session, was he able to attend the Council. At the beginning of
the next session (Feb. 1841) Bunbury succeeded him as Secretary,
Darwin still remaining on the Council. It may be regarded as a striking
indication of the esteem in which he was held by his fellow geologists,
that Darwin remained on the Council for 14 consecutive years down to
1849, though his attendances were in some years very few. In 1843 and
1844 he was a Vice-president, but after his retirement at the beginning
of 1850, he never again accepted re-nomination. He continued, however,
to contribute papers to the Society, as we shall see, down to the end of
1862.

Although Darwin early became a member of the Geological Dining Club, it
is to be feared that he scarcely found himself in a congenial atmosphere
at those somewhat hilarious gatherings, where the hardy wielders of the
hammer not only drank port--and plenty of it--but wound up their
meal with a mixture of Scotch ale and soda water, a drink which, as
reminiscent of the "field," was regarded as especially appropriate to
geologists. Even after the meetings, which followed the dinners,
they reassembled for suppers, at which geological dainties, like
"pterodactyle pie" figured in the bill of fare, and fines of bumpers
were inflicted on those who talked the "ologies."

After being present at a fair number of meetings in 1837 and 1838,
Darwin's attendances at the Club fell off to two in 1839, and by 1841
he had ceased to be a member. In a letter to Lyell on Dec. 2nd, 1841,
Leonard Horner wrote that the day before "At the Council, I had the
satisfaction of seeing Darwin again in his place and looking well. He
tried the last evening meeting, but found it too much, but I hope before
the end of the season he will find himself equal to that also. I hail
Darwin's recovery as a vast gain to science." Darwin's probably last
attendance, this time as a guest, was in 1851, when Horner again
wrote to Lyell, "Charles Darwin was at the Geological Society's Club
yesterday, where he had not been for ten years--remarkably well, and
grown quite stout." ("Memoirs of Leonard Horner" (privately printed),
Vol. II. pages 39 and 195.)

It may be interesting to note that at the somewhat less lively dining
Club--the Philosophical--in the founding of which his friends Lyell and
Hooker had taken so active a part, Darwin found himself more at home,
and he was a frequent attendant--in spit