50 DK AROHIBALD'S " CUKIOSITIES OF DuMFKIES." 



II. — Mr James S. Thomson, Dumfries, read a paper on " IVaier 

 Po7ver in relation to Electric Generation." Mr Thomson was 

 cordially thanked for his interesting contribution. 



8th March, 1901, 



The Rev. John Cairns in the Chair. 



Donations a7id Exchanges. — Report of the British Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, 1900. Annals of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences, XIII., 1. U.S. Department of Agriculture: 

 North American Fauna, No. 16 — Results of a Biological Survey 

 of Mount Shaster, California, by C. Hart Merriinan. 



Correspondence. — A letter from Mr Moreey was read asking 

 names of parties in this district willing to undertake phrenological 

 observations. It was resolved to submit the name of Miss 

 Cresswell, Nunholm, and to communicate through the Rev. W. 

 Andson with Mr Crorrie, Sorbie, and Mr Wallace, Auchenbrack, 

 whether they would also undertake to make these observations. 



Communication. 



Resume prepared by the late Dr James Macdonat-D, F.S.A. Scot., 

 of Dr Archibald's '■'■Account of the Curiosities of Dumfries,^' and 

 '• Account anent Galloway^'' from the Sibbald MSS. iu the 

 Advocates" Library, read by Mr J. C. R. Maodonald, W.S , 

 Dumfries. 



NOTES CONCERNING THE WRITKE. 



So far as I can ascertain, this " Accoujit" has never yet been 

 published ; and, though its value is certainly not great, it derives 

 some interest from the fact that it was written at least 200 years 

 ago, and that its author was one of the leading medical prac- 

 titioners of his day in the town of Dumfries. 



It is but fair to remember that at the end of the seventeenth 

 century Scottish ArchiBoIogy was only in its infancy. Sir Robert 

 Sibbald, for whose use the " Account" was drawn up, may be said 

 to have been its father, and though his numerous works on the 



