Transcribe Ward, Henry A. Letter to Dewey, Chester (1856-03-31)

He is quite a young man, but of great talent, and bids fair to make one of the first Paleontologists of Western Europe. He is taking however a most unwise, as well as unapprovable, course in expressing publicly a decided hostility towards Mr. Alcide D'Orbizny. The meetings of the Geological Society still continue, & are intensely interesting . Mr. Elie de Beaumont's term of Presidency has expired & Mr. Deshazes has been chosen to take his chair. Is this latter gentleman much known in America? He his the author of the huge work on the fossils of the Paris Basin on the consholozz of Algiers &e. & e. You will also doubtless remember him as the Paleontologist who made the determinations by which Lyell divided the Tertiary into Eocene, Miocene, & e. The Socirty is a very active one </s the prespating > holding a very extensive correspondence with England, America, Germany, Italy, Austria, Russia & e. and publishing very largely. Besides the reading & discussion of these letters, we are entertained by internal communications, on the Geology, & Paleontology of the Paris Basin, of France, & of other regions visited by the members; or on other subjects investigated by them. Among the older members of the society there are some who please me very much. Mr. Omolius d'Holloz still attends the meetings & often takes an active part in the discussions although he is very old & his hair as white as snow.