372 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



had greatly to thank Sir John Murray for his kind influence 

 in obtaining this gift. (2) The two volumes of the Index 

 Eewensis, the preparation of which had been suggested and 

 mainly paid for by the late Mr. Darwin. These had been 

 given to the Society by Mr. Dai-win's eldest son, Professor 

 G. H. Darwin, F.R.S., of Cambridge. (3) Tliree volumes of 

 Lord Kelvin's " Popular Lectures and Addresses," from the 

 author. There were various other volximes. 



The Chairman said that the Society, owing to the fact that 

 its membership and income were not so large as they might 

 be, was sometimes a little straitened in its financial circum- 

 stances, but a kind friend — Mr. James Coats, Jun., of Paisley — 

 had that week sent a most generous donation of fifty guineas 

 in aid of the Society's funds, for which the Council were truly 

 grateful. Mr. Somerville handed over the cheque to the Hon. 

 Treasurer, Mr. Renwick. 



Sir John Murray, K.C.B., of the "Challenger" Expedition, 

 was the next speaker. He said — Mr. President, my lords, ladies, 

 and gentlemen, — I am here to-night in order to convey to you 

 the congratulations of the Scottish Natural History Society, 

 Edinburgh, on the occasion of your Jubilee, and I am also 

 desired to express the hope that during the next fifty years 

 you will be more prosperous still, and that you will take a 

 much wider and larger part in the intellectual life of the West 

 of Scotland than in the past fifty years. 



I could wish that the ideals of education in this country, or 

 even the aims of the higher education, were to turn our students 

 into instruments for advancing scientific discovery. I often 

 think that our present system of education tends to produce a 

 static character among our people, rather than what Lord 

 Kelvin might call a type which would exhibit a kinetic 

 scientific efiiciency. Very often it appears to me that if the 

 tendency of our education were to produce men with inquisitive, 

 mobile, and inventive minds, we would be able to do better 

 than we have done — to lay the foundations of our commercial 

 and industrial prosperity in the future upon the sure bed-rock 

 of science. That, I think, ought to be the aim of education in 

 this country, and until we arrive at a stage of that kind I 

 cannot help thinking that societies like this fill a veiy great 



