PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



SESSION CXVI. 



Wednesday, 17th Novemher 1886. — John A. Harvie-Brown, 

 Esq., F.K.S.E., F.Z.S., Vice-President, in the Chair. 

 [Plates XIL, XIII.] 



The Chairman delivered the following opening address : 



Gentlemen, — Before reading to yon the paper which I present 

 you with as my address, I wonld shortly refer to the loss 

 this Society has sustained in one of its brightest ornaments, 

 — the late Mr Charles W. Peach,— whose great ability as 

 a naturalist, whose genial character as a man, and whose 

 obliging disposition at all times, has won for him an enduring 

 admiration. It is not my intention in this place to review 

 a life which already is, or ought to be, known to every 

 Scottish I^aturalist. It has been told, and felicitously told, 

 by Mr Smiles in his " Life of Robert Dick ; " and in that 

 most interesting volume is also given an equally happy 

 portrait of him whom we now deplore. 



I would also refer shortly to the continued prosperity of 

 our Society, and the wealth of scientific matter contained in 

 the Proceedings ; to an increase of working members, and 

 a greater general interest in the work, as new fields and new 

 branches of discovery are opened up, and as more and more 

 members are enrolled. 



If, in a Presidential address, I may be allowed to suggest 

 a future field of work, which has not hitherto, perhaps, re- 



VOL. IX. X 



