106 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society, 



latter date our Society has met in the Philosophical Insti- 

 tution. 



In the course of time the character of the meetings had 

 changed. Purely medical subjects gave way to Natural 

 History in the old wide acceptation of the term, and from 

 being a mere debating society the Royal Physical assumed 

 the role of an association for the communication of papers 

 embodying original observation and research. In 1854 the 

 publication of Proceedings was commenced, and the three 

 volumes which were produced from that date to 1866, under 

 the genial Secretaryship of the late Dr John Alexander 

 Smith, amply prove the useful nature of the work which the 

 Society was then performing. Need I do more than refer to 

 the beautifully illustrated and valuable zoological papers of 

 the late Dr Strethill Wright, supported and accompanied as 

 they were by important contributions from Dr John Cleland 

 (now Professor of Anatomy in Glasgow), the late Mr Andrew 

 Murray, Mr C. W. Peach, Dr Smith himself, and many other old 

 friends, most of whom are now no longer with us in this life. 



Then came another period of depression, brought on again 

 by financial difficulties. Those three fine volumes of Pro- 

 ceedings had not been produced for nothing, and the excess of 

 expenditure over income — for at that time the annual sub- 

 scription was extremely small — threw the Society into a sea 

 of trouble. I regret to mention that to aid in meeting these 

 difficulties a considerable part of the library was sold, 

 including chiefly the old medical books which in days gone 

 by had been amassed with so much care. 



But the storm did not overwhelm the " Royal Physical." 

 Again it came forth from the ordeal, and in 1874, under the 

 Secretaryship of the late Dr Robert Brown, the publication 

 of Proceediiigs was resumed. But as Dr Brown soon after- 

 wards migrated to London, it was fortunate for the Society 

 that in 1 876 it secured the services as Secretary of the late 

 Mr Robert Gray, the well-known author of the " Birds of 

 the West of Scotland" — a man of trained business habits, 

 wide interest in Science, of a singularly genial- disposition, 

 and eveiy way qualified to perform the duties which he 

 undertook. Then it was that the Society seemed to enter 



