II.— STATEMENT OP PROCEEDINGS. 



In some material respects the Committee are in a position to state that the 

 Society has nlade considerable progress during the past year. The numher of 

 Members enrolled for the previous session was 82 ; the number enrolled for 

 the session now being closed has been 115. Of Papers read and Expositions 

 delivered, there were 9 during the first period ; there have been 20 during 

 tlie second pericid. 



Of the latter the programme has been as follows : — " On some of the 

 recent Improvements on the Marine Engine," by Mr Stewart Robertson ; 

 " On the Mouth and its Modifications in various classes of Animals," by Mr 

 W. Scott Aitken ; " Outlines of the Ethnology of the West of Scotland," by 

 Mr C. D. Lamout ; "On the Recent Progress and Present State of some 

 departments of Engineering Science," by Professor W. J. Macquorn Rankine, 

 F. R. S. , (fee, (two lectures) ; "Notes on Art, with reference to the Interna- 

 tional Exhibition," by Mr Thomas Mackinlay ; " On the new metal Thallium, 

 and recent Spectrum investigations," by Mr David Hill ; "Binuvie of a recent 

 paper, by Mr Geikie, F.G.S. , 'On the date of the last Elevation of Central 

 Scotland,' " by Mr W. J. MacLoskey ; "Recent Discussions on the Study of 

 History," by Mr Richard Chalmers; "On the Early English Drama," by 

 Mr Alex. Mackenzie, M.A. ; "On Traces of the Old Glaciers of the Basin of 

 the Clyde," by Mr Archibald Geikie, F.G.S., &c. ; "On Submarine Tele- 

 graphs," by Mr John Thomson, C.E. ; "On Memory," by Dr Edward Pick ; 

 " Observations on the recent Progress of Glacier Discovery," by the Presi- 

 dent ; " A Gas and Air Fire Apparatus exhibited and explained." by Rev. 

 Archd. Wilson ; Mr De La Rue's series of 18-inch Photographs of the Moon, 

 exhibited by the kind permission of the Artist ; " On the Sculptured Stt)nes 

 and Christian Monuments of Scotland, with some Illustrations of the Monu- 

 mental Brasses of England," by Rev. J. F. S. Gordon, D.D. ; "On the Tree 

 Mosses of Scotland," by Mr John Shaw ; " On Ancient Greenock : its Quays, 

 Slips, and Sea Marks," by Mr Wm. Allison; "On Roman Coins," by Mr 

 Stephen Williamson ; "On the Life of Shakspere, with Readings from his 

 works," by Mr Allan Park Paton. 



It is to the authors of these papers that the Society owes any advances it 

 may have recently made in prosperity and usefulness ; and looking to tlie 

 cordial feeling with which, in every instance, those gentlemen have met their 

 wishes, the Committee cannot but express their conviction, that, the available 

 resources of the Society are much more than ample enough to carrj' it oji 



