370 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



to the Society, and my best and warmest wishes for its con- 

 tinued success. 



Professor M'Kendrick, F.R.S., of Glasgow University, the next 

 speaker, said — It gives me the greatest pleasure to accede to 

 your Chairman's kind invitation to be present this evening. I 

 come here as a naturalist, although I have not for many years 

 worked in the special province of what is usually spoken of 

 as natural history; but I am sure that Lord Kelvin will agree 

 with me that all scientific men are naturalists, inasmuch as 

 they study nature. Although for many years my life-work has 

 been in one particular branch — that of physiology — I have 

 always taken a deep interest in the kindred studies, and more 

 especially in those relating to the life-history of plants and 

 animals. I may say that I would never have entered the 

 medical profession had it not been through the door of natural 

 history, because it was the love of plants and animals which 

 first excited in me the desire for scientific knowledge. I 

 remember years ago, in the Pass of Ballater, scrambling up the 

 rocks in eager search, and there, in a cleft of the rock, I saw 

 a rare fern, the Asplenium septentrional e. Nothing short of 

 a wild cheer to my friends below at the discovery could give ex- 

 pression to the joy I felt. At a time when it was not very common 

 for anyone to give attention to marine biology, I found great 

 pleasure in gathering some of the rarer animals and plants on 

 the coast of Aberdeen, and I showed the fern I have referred 

 to, in the Museum of Aberdeen, at the first meeting of the 

 British Association in that city in 1857. I come to you, there- 

 fore, not altogether as a pure physiologist, but as one who 

 takes a deep interest in plant and animal life. 



I have often thought that the naturalists of the future — I 

 mean such as are assembled in this room — will not limit them- 

 selves so much to the collecting of specimens, or to noting 

 the habitat of plants or animals, but will be more disposed 

 to study the life-history of many of these specimens. The 

 establishment of the Aquarium at Cumbrae has given a ne/w 

 start to this side of natural history, because it has taken us 

 away from mere collecting to the study of the life-history of 

 many marine forms. And here it is that your studies merge 

 into mine, for physiology gathers information from all quarters. 



