P7'oceedings of Irish Societies. 23 



BEI.FAST Naturai. History and PhiIvOSophicai. Society. 



November 13th. — The seventy-fourth session was opened in the 

 Museum, College Square North, when the inaugural address was delivered 

 by the President (Mr. Robert L1.0YD Patterson, j.p., f.i,.s.) 



Mr. Patterson said that, on assuming the presidential chair at that the 

 opening meeting of the seventy-fourth session of their Society, he was 

 pleased at being able to congratulate his fellow-members on its continued 

 vitality and activity, notwithstanding its advancing years. To the 

 thoughtfulness of a lady — a life-long friend andwell-wisher of the Society, 

 the late Miss Thompson— they were indebted for the bequest of an 

 admirable portrait of her brother, Mr. William Thompson, one of the 

 most distinguished of their former Presidents. A member had presented 

 a very good likeness of another former President, Mr. Robert Patterson, 

 while to a valued and useful member, Mr. Swanston, they were much in- 

 debted for the recent gift of a bust of one of the most eminent naturalists 

 the century had produced — Professor Edward Forbes — a man of truly re- 

 markable powers and brilliant genius. The three had been united in bonds 

 of the closest friendship, cemented by a community of taste and of interest 

 in certain branches of science, a pursuit which was to Forbes a profession : 

 to Thompson — a man of means and leisure — an occupation ; but to 

 Patterson — a man of business — merely a relaxation. It occurred to him 

 (the President) that the acquisition by the Society almost simultaneously 

 of these mementoes of the three friends might fittingly be made the 

 occasion of a brief review of their lives. He could not recall Mr Forbes. 

 He knew he had seen him ; but he remembered Mr. Thompson very well 

 indeed. He was the first of the three to be called away. After speaking 

 of the early life of Mr. Thompson, the President pointed out that his first 

 contribution to the proceedings of one of the English learned societies 

 seemed to have been in 1833 — a communication on the iVrctic Tern and 

 other rare birds observed in Ireland, made to the Zoological Society 

 of London. From that period up to the time of his premature and 

 lamented death he was a frequent and valued contributor to the different 

 English scientific journals. 



As to Robert Patterson, he should for obvious reasons say less. He 



survived his friend Thompson exactly twenty years. His was an uneventful, 



busy, happy life, passed in a business to which he had been brought up, 



which he inherited from his father, and left to his eldest son. With him 



literature and science, although a passion, were merely a relaxation, not 



an occupation. His books were written in the leisure of his evenings at 



home, and published with the hope of enlisting more general interest in 



the study of Natural History. He was one of the earliest, strongest, and 



most consistent advocates for the adoption of Natural History as a regular 



part of the education of our youth, and he lived to see the realisation of 



much of his dream. Mr. Patterson was one of the seven 



founders of the Society in 182 1. He passed through almost every 



minor office in it till 1852, when on Mr. Thompson's death he was elected 



President,an office which hesubsequently filledon more than oneoccasion. 



Referring to Professor Forbes, the speaker said he was an original and 



commanding genius, and a most interesting personality. He was born at 



Douglas. Isle of Man, on the 12th February, 1815, and died at Edinburgh 



on the i8th November, 1854, aged only thirty-nine years and nine months. 



During his short life he accomplished an enormous amount of work. 



Mr. Patterson then gave some very interesting particulars of Forbes's 



life, taken from his biography. Of him it was no exaggeration to say that 



his was a most original, versatile, and brilliant intellect of the highest 



order. His early death was an irreparable loss to the whole scientific 



world of the period. 



The President of the Belfast Queen's College (Rev. Dr. Hamii^Ton) 

 moved a vote of thanks to the President for his address. 



Mr, Robert Young, j,p., seconded the motion, which was passed 

 by acclamation, and the meeting then coucluded, 



