2 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



during the interval since the Society last met. A material 

 increase in the number of Fellows has, on the contrary, taken 

 place. No less than twenty -nine elections were made during 

 last session. The present strength is as follows : 



Ordinary Fellows, 185 



ISTon-Eesident Fellows (Old), ... 51 



Corresponding Fellows, . . . . 15 



Honorary Fellows, 24 



It is my duty, gentlemen, to earnestly call upon you to 

 bring the merits of our Society before your friends, and to 

 instil them with the objects for which we meet together. 

 Only by this means can the strength of the Society be kept 

 up and increased. 



During the 110th and past Session a number of very 

 important papers were read, and will shortly appear. 

 Amongst them may be mentioned the following : 



The address of the President, Professor J. Duns, D.D. — 

 " The Early History of Scottish Natural Science/' on Novem- 

 ber 17, 1880. This was followed at regular intervals by Dr 

 Traquair " On the Affinities of Certain Liassic Fishes," Dr 

 Herdman's " Additional Notes on the Invertebrate Fauna of 

 Lamlash Bay," Mr Harvie-Brown " On the Distribution of the 

 Squirrel in Great Britain," and Messrs Leslie and Herdman's 

 very important summary of the " Invertebrate Fauna of the 

 Firth of Forth." In the Botanical section my friend Mr E. 

 Kidston read some very im]3ortant notes " On the Structure 

 of Lepidodendron selaginoides." It is not often that a species 

 new to Britain is added; it was, therefore, with much 

 pleasure that the Society must have listened to Mr J. J. 

 Dalgleish's account of the "Occurrence of the Desert 

 Wheatear" amongst us. To the pen of the Eev. 0. P. 

 Cambridge we are indebted for the description of a " New 

 Species of Spider from Newfoundland," found by one of our 

 Fellows, Mr Archibald Gray. I cannot conclude this brief 

 summary of the Society's doings last session without referring 

 to two other highly important papers, the first by Mr P. 

 Geddes, " On the Morphology of the Cell," and by Dr Herd- 

 man, " On the Olfactory Tubercle as a Speciiic Character in 

 the Ascidians." 



