INTRODUCTORY. 



TN presenting to the Members, for the first time in a printed 

 -'- form, a short account of the work done by the Society, it was 

 thougl)t desirable that something should be said of the origin of 

 the Dundee Naturalists' Society, and of its progress to the 

 time when the Fourth Annual Report takes up the tale. 



Attempts have been made at various times within the last 

 dozen years, by various individuals, to establish in Dundee a 

 Scientific Society ; but, through lack of persevering energy on the 

 part of the promoters, the first efforts were not followed up, and 

 generally the schemes fell through. The shop of Mr LowDON, 

 Optician, a favourite resort of the scientifically inclined, was the 

 scene of many a talk on the matter. But nothing definite was 

 done until the advent on the scene in 1873 of Mr Stephen 

 Cooke, at that time Science Teacher in Dundee, now Professor 

 of Chemistry in the Glasgow Veterinary College. Mr CoOKE 

 had long been desirous to see such a Society set agoing, and had 

 consulted with Mr Lowdon as to the possibility of accomplishing 

 such an object. After sundry conversations between Mr LowDON, 

 Mr W. M. Ogilvie, Mr Alfred Guthrie, and Mr Cooke, the 

 last-named gentleman undertook the work of bringing together 

 a number of those likely to interest themselves in the scheme, 

 and whose names had been supplied to him by the others. He 

 called on several, and wrote to others ; and having obtained from 

 a few promises of support, he invited them to meet together on 

 Thursday evening, the 22d January 1874, in the premises of the 

 Young Men's Chi-istian Association, Constitution Road. At that 

 meeting it was unanimously resolved that a Naturalists' Society 

 should be formed, to be called "The Dundee Naturalists' 



