18 - Presidential Address. 



Borthwick; C. Harkness, writer; Provost Caldow, Maxwell- 

 town; J. Symons, writer; Dr H. G. Stewart, Crichton 

 Institution; Dr S. Grierson, Southern Counties Asylum; and 

 W. Hogg-, draper. The Annual Subscription for Ordinary 

 Members was fixed at 5s, payable in advance, " or such 

 other sum as shall from time to time be fixed upon as the 

 annual contribution." 



I do not propose to weary you with similar lists of 

 Oflfice-Bearers in the ensuing years,* nor do I think it neces- 

 sary to detail the rules drawn up by the Society from time 

 to time. 



Session 1862-1866. [Vol. I.] 



The Society did not shout its advent from the house- 

 tops, but quietly and practically set itself to add to the sum 

 of our scientific knowledge. In the winter it held meetings 

 monthly in the Committee Room of the Mechanics' Institute, 

 when papers were read and discussed, and interesting objects 

 exhibited and recorded. In summer there were monthly 

 field meetings, at which much useful work was done. In 

 this connection it is noticeable that in those early days the 

 active members were interested in Natural History rather 

 than in Archajology, and the work performed in the former 

 field has had perhaps more lasting value than the work in 

 the latter. The first volume of the Transactions and Journal 

 of the Proceedings of the Society appeared in 1864. It was 

 edited and presented to the Society by Sir William Jardine, 

 and was distributed free to all the Ordinary Members on 

 the roll up to 1864. Members admitted after that date had 

 to pay IS 6d, and the price of the volume to non-members 

 was fixed at 2s 6d, and to Corresponding Members at is 6d. 

 It was printed in Edinburgh by Messrs R. & R. Clark, and 

 contained seventy pages, twenty-six of which were devoted 

 to a most encouraging address by the President, Sir William 

 Jardine. There was also a most careful list of " the Lepi- 

 doptera found near Dumfries," by William Lennon, who 



* A list of the principal Office-Bearers of the Society since its 

 institvition will be found on p 40, 



