History of the Society. 23 



that our Society was alive at that date, but from the local 

 Press of the day we learn that it still continued in existence. 

 On January 13th, 1874, James Starke, sen., on accepting the 

 office of President, in room of Mr Dudgeon of Cargen, who 

 had declined to accept the appointment, delivered an address, 

 in which he indicated his intention of making an effort to 

 revive the interest formerly taken in the objects of the Society, 

 which, with the attendance at meetings, had for some time 

 considerably fallen off, and Dr Gilchrist gave notice of a 

 motion on the same subject.* Patrick Dudgeon about this 

 period read two papers, which, although not appearing in our 

 Transactions, were subsequently printed by himself, t On 

 December 8th, 1874, J'lmes Starke resigned the Presidency on 

 account of ill-health, and Dr Gilchrist was unanimously elected 

 to fill the vacancy.. t W^e are told in a later volume of our 

 Transactions that the Society " continued in a prosperous 

 condition till May, 1875, when its meetings ceased. "§ 

 Although this statement is substantially correct, it would 

 seem that the Society was never actually dissolved. 

 The President, realising that it was practically in abey- 

 ance, adopted, with the object of infusing new vitality 

 into the Society's affairs, the somewhat extreme course of 

 reorganising it afresh, and this has led to a presumption that 

 at this date a new Society was formed. The Secretary, T. 

 Corrie, was left in possession of the minute book and other 

 property, while the President took with him the more active 

 members of the original Society, and in due course the minute 

 book and properties found their way back to their natural 

 owners. 



We read that " a meeting was held on November 3rd, 



1876 at No. I Union Street, Dumfries, by ^^hose 



interested in natural history and antiquarian pursuits. At 



* Duinf)irs and (UiUoiraij Standard, Januarj' 17tli, 1874. 



t .Incient Smelting i'laces in Truqueer, 1871; St. Queran's 

 ]]'dl in Traqueer, 1870. 



t Duni.frirs and. (Udhnrau Herald. December Ut'i, 1874. 



j Trans. D. tb ^'. Nat. Hid. and Antiq. Soc, Vol. 2, N.S. 

 (1881) [Vol. viii.], Title-page. 



