42 History of the Society. 



Treasurers. 



William Georg-e Gibson Nov. 20th, 1862-Nov. 7th, 1865. 



Thomas Corrie Nov. 7th, 1865- 



John A. Moodie Nov. 3rd, 1876-Oct. 5th, 1877. 



Douglas Baird Hart Oct. sth, 1877-Oct. 2nd, 1879. 



William Adamson Oct. 2nd, 1879-Oct. 5th, 1883. 



(Assistant) John A. Moodie, 



Oct. 2nd, 1879-Oct. 8th, 1880. 

 James Lennox, F.S.A.(Scot.) ... Oct. 5th, 1883-Oct. 5th, 1888. 



James S. Thomson Oct. 5th, 1888-Oct. 4th, 1889. 



John A. Moodie Oct. 4th, 1889-June 2nd, 1905. 



Matthew Henry M'Kerrow ... June and, 1905- 



The Possibilities of Societies such as Ours. 



By Sir James Crichton-Browne, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 



Our President has ably and lucidly and with great 

 succinctness described to us the history of the Dumfriesshire 

 and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society dur- 

 ing its fifty years of active life. He has explained its origin, 

 traced its progress, summarised its achievements, and in 

 doing that his glance has been necessarily retrospective ; and 

 it now becomes my duty in the few words I shall address to 

 you to turn in the other direction and take a prospective view 

 of the Society, to anticipate what its course will be in the 

 next half-century, to indicate not its achievements but its 

 possibilities. 



The President was on safe ground ; he had records to 

 appeal to. I stand on a quagmire, and have only imagination 

 guided by analogy to trust to. Prediction is always 

 hazardous ; even more so as regards groups of human beings 

 than as regards individuals. Societies, like individuals, have 

 their ups and downs, their periods of vigorous growth and 

 of decline. They flourish luxuriantly or perish miserably. 

 You can't insure them at sixpence a week. But even as 

 regards societies prognosis is sometimes possible, and from 

 all I have heard of the antecedents of this Society, from all 

 I know of its present condition, I would confidently predict 

 for it a long lease of life and much useful and remunerative 



