4 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Socvety. 
descriptions of the geology of Edinburgh, of the Old Red 
Sandstone, and of fossil fishes, contributed by Hugh Miller, 
narratives which read more like fairy tales than hard 
scientific records; the wonderful powers of description and 
narrative, the beauty and power of the language, the keen- 
ness of insight, and purity and breadth of thought that 
characterise all that Hugh Miller wrote, carrying away into 
the realms of poetry and imagination all but the most prosaic 
of readers. Hugh Miller contributed to the Proceedings of 
the Society from 1848 to 1856, and who will dare to say that 
the world is not so much richer through the papers that he 
gave to that enthusiastic band of geologists, his hearers, both 
directly by the papers themselves, and indirectly by the 
enormous influence that such a man must have exerted in 
moulding the thought and stimulating the ardour of those 
who had the privilege of coming under the spell of his mind 
and teaching. 
The Peaches, the Geikies, and that long line of geologists 
of which Edinburgh has been the proud birthplace and 
nursery, have all been associated with the Royal Physical 
Society, and have helped to make its name famous in the 
scientific world. 
Here, too, have been attracted men from the theological 
schools, and Dr Fleming and his colleagues, and more recently 
Dr Dunn and some of his pupils, have taken their part in the 
discussions that have been raised on points of natural history, 
and on the doctrine of evolution as opposed to special creation. 
Of ornithology, it may be said that in the pages of the Royal 
Physical Society will be found as many notes on the habits 
of birds, and on the appearance of species in different localities, 
as can be found in any magazine or periodical specially de- 
voted to the subject ; and Mr Evans, I feel sure, could draw 
up a list of ornithologists, members of this Society, which 
would compare most favourably, as regards the work done by 
them, with any list compiled from the proceedings of any 
other similar society. 
What must strike every one most forcibly in our Proceedings, 
is that the papers recorded in them, given by the younger 
men, have very frequently indicated the lines on which a great 
