1908. P7 oceedings of Irish Societies* 41 



BELFAST NATURALISTS' FIELD CLUB. 



December 14— Botanicai, Section. — A meeting was held in the 

 Museum, when two short papers were read ; by, W. J. C. Tomi^inson on 

 " Local Botanical Field Work in 1907," illustrated by mounted specimens 

 of rare plants collected during the season, and by Svi^VANUS Wear on 

 "Cluster-cups, &c.," illustrated by special micro-slides. 



BELFAST NATURAL HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHICAL 



SOCIETY. 



January 14.— Prof. Gregg Wii^son, D.Sc, M.R.I. A., lectured on 

 " ' Primitive Australia ' : An account of some of the more notable features 

 of Plant life, Animal life, and the habits of the Aborigines." The paper 

 was illustrated by a special series of lantern views. 



OBITUARY. 



LORD KELVIN. 



In Lord Kelvin, the most distinguished Irishman of our time has passed 

 away. In the widest sense no greater naturalist has ever lived. The 

 laws of energy, which he did so much to establish, control the lives of 

 all living beings. Energy as an entity of varying form was not under- 

 stood till his work, along with that of Carnot, Joule, and Helmholtz, 

 founded the great conception : the most fertile ever brought into science. 



His more detailed work for natural science was the invention of the 

 deep-sea sounding-wire. This has been instrumental in revealing a 

 new world to us, as unlike our aerial world as if originated on another 

 planet. 



In geology he was a pioneer in exact methods. The impatience with 

 which his mathematical restrictions were received by contemporary 

 geologists show how much the new methods of exact induction were 

 required. No matter how plausible the hypothesis, when experiment 

 and mathematical reasoning enter the field, the only weapons are those 

 of exact science, or, failing these, submission. Much has changed since 

 the time when physicist and geologist contended over the period since 

 the consistentior stains. But the change is largely due to Lord Kelvin. 



J. Joi,y. 



