320 OPENING ADDRESS.—MACGREGOR. 
Mr. Gossip contributed four scientific papers to our Transac- 
tions, one geological and three anthropological. His activity and 
influence in the line of the Institute’s scientific work, however, 
were much greater than is indicated by the number of his papers. 
Not being himself professionally a scientific man, he was diffident 
about putting into the form of a paper the results of his own 
observation and reflection. But being a very wide reader, and 
having not only large scientific interest, but also extensive scien- 
tific knowledge, the remarks he was accustomed to make on 
papers read by other members, were always full of information, 
and often highly suggestive ; and most of our working members 
owe him a debt of gratitude for his intelligent and kindly criti- 
cism of their work. 
Dr. HONEYMAN was born at Corbie Hill, Fifeshire, Scotland, in 
1817. He received his early education at the Dundee High 
School, from which he proceeded, at the age of 17, to the Uni- 
versity of St. Andrews. At St. Andrews he devoted himself 
chiefly to the somewhat strange combination of oriental languages 
and natural science. The former, including Hebrew, Chaldee, 
Syriac and Persian, he studied with such marked success, that 
while yet a student, he was selected to teach Hebrew to a class 
consisting largely of clergymen. In natural science he quickly 
became so well known as a collector that he was employed to 
assist in providing a museum for the Watt Institution of Dundee. 
Having completed his university studies he selected the church 
as a profession, and in 1836 entered the United Secession Theo- 
logical Hall, studying first at Glasgow, and afterwards at 
Edinburgh. He was licensed in 1841, and joined the Free Church 
immediately after the Disruption. Five years afterwards he 
came out to Nova Scotia and was appointed Professor of Hebrew 
in the Free Church College in this city ; but after a short pro- 
fessoriate he resigned his chair with the intention of going to 
the United States. A timely call from the Presbyterian congrega- 
tion of Shubenacadie, however, induced him to remain in Nova 
Scotia; and a few years later he accepted the pastorate of the 
congregation of Antigonish. Meantime neither his theological 
and oriental studies, nor his pastoral work had quenched his early 
