PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



FIFTY-SIXTH SESSION. 



Anderson's University Buildings, November 4, 1857. 



The Fiffcjr -Sixth Session of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow was 

 opened this evening, — Professor William Thomson, President, in the 

 Chair. 



Mr. William Murray mentioned, as illustrating the progress of 

 scientific education among the working population, that the demand 

 for admission to the popular classes in the Andersonian Institution this 

 winter, greatly exceeds the accommodation of the lecture hall. 



Mr. James Bryce and Mr. Charles Griffin were requested to docquet 

 the Treasurer's Accounts. 



After some introductory remarks by the President, on the plan 

 about to be adopted of obtaining regular reports from Committees of 

 the Society in the different branches of science, Mr. Keddie, Secretary, 

 read the following Memorials, prepared from the old minute book, with 

 the aid of personal reminiscences by Mr. Eobert Hart. 



Early Uistory and Proceedings oftlie Society. By Mk. William Keddie. 



The Philosophical Society was instituted in November, 1802, for the 

 purpose of reading essays and conversing on scientific subjects, for the 

 exhibition of models of machinery, and the formation of a scientific 

 library. The original plan of the Society was subscribed by sixty 

 members, who met on the 8th of December and chose their first office- 

 bearers. The President was Dr. William Meikleham, who in the fol- 

 lowing year became Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University 

 of Glasgow. Tlie Vice-Pi-esidcnt was Mr. John lloberton, ironfounder, 

 who was the first to introduce tlie self-acting screw lathe, and was the 

 patentee ol a method of consuming smoke in furnaces, whicli he ex.- 



