54 MEMORIAL TRIBUTE 



Principal Lang said Ladies and Gentlemen, You 

 know the object of our present assembly, and I shall 

 at once ask Dr. Forbes White, whom we are glad to 

 see amongst us to-day, to state the object of the meeting, 

 and address us in regard to that object and to perform 

 the duty that he shall, in his graceful way, perform. 



Dr. John F. White, who was received with 

 applause, said It is with some reluctance that I 

 appear before you to-day to perform an important 

 duty. The position I occupy should have been filled 

 by the Rev. Dr. Mair of Earlston, Chairman of the 

 MacGillivray Committee, and a distinguished graduate 

 of our University, whom failing, by the Rev. Dr. 

 Farquharson, late of Selkirk, the secretary and moving 

 spirit of the movement, and the favourite pupil of 

 Professor MacGillivray. But owing to the infirm 

 health of both of these gentlemen, which I much regret, 

 I have been asked to undertake the duty which they 

 would have discharged much more efficiently. I do 

 so, however, with sincere pleasure, as it gives me 

 the opportunity of expressing my life-long gratitude 

 to an honoured teacher, one of the three professors 

 to whom I owe most. Professor MacGillivray was 

 appointed to the Chair of Natural History in Marischal 

 College and University in 1841, and died in 1852. 

 During the last two years of his tenure of office his 

 health broke down, so that his real work as professor 

 was done in nine short years. Yet how much work 

 did he crowd into this brief space of time 1 In winter 



