12 President's Address. 



of marine algoe for Dr Harvey's famous work, " Pliycologia 

 Britannica." In 1848 the vessel was paid off, and Dr 

 M'Bain returned to terra firma, and took up his residence 

 at Elie for four years, before fixing his abode at Trinity. 

 About this time (1853) he became an attendant at our 

 meetings, and continued to be so pretty constantly till his 

 last illness. When he came to Trinity he met in Professor 

 Fleming (who was a relative of his) with a man of a like 

 type with himself — honest, sincere, original, steadily pro- 

 secuting science for its own sake, without any view to 

 ulterior advantages, and for him he ever entertained the 

 warmest regard. To geology his thoughts seem to have 

 been specially directed by that very able and accomplished 

 professor, and the cognate science of mineralogy was to 

 him a source of delight. He latterly devoted himself also 

 to anthropological studies, and witli his friend Professor 

 Turner was busily engaged in measuring crania. &c. In 

 his many scientific excursions, his vasculum and his geo- 

 logical hammer were his constant companions. In short, 

 it may be truly said of M'Bain, that within his heart were 

 chords which vibrated in unison with Nature in her various 

 domains. When Professor John Fleming was removed by 

 death, Dr M'Bain, who during his life had proved his 

 Jidus Achates, took his place and maintained his teachings, 

 specially in zoology and geology, at the meetings of our 

 sister Society, " The Eoyal Physical," where he was no less 

 respected than among ourselves. His generous nature led 

 him ever to encourage any sincere investigator of scientific 

 truth, and his kindly sympathy with his fellow-labourers 

 cheered them in the farther prosecution of their task. 



But I should fail in my sketch if I did not view Dr 

 M'Bain in his capacity of faithful custodier of that Actinea 

 Mesembrijanthemum who, among naturalists, has long borne 

 the honourable appellation of " Granny," and who, though 

 she has entered on her fifty-second, if not her fifty-ninth, 

 year of existence, has not yet ceased to people the waters 

 with her progeny, for, from the 4th March to the 4th of 

 October of this year, on which occasion the last official 

 registry of birth occurs, she has given birth to twenty-seven 

 young ones. This is nothing, however, to her prolific 

 powers in 1857, for then in a single night she gave birth 



