Transactions. UB 
me of thanking the members of that Society who may be here 
present for the honour they have done me in placing me in the 
presidential chair—-an honour which I am sure I owe to their 
kindness and generosity, and not to any services which I have 
myself rendered to the Society. The fact that I am the only 
Fellow of the Royal Society of London at the present time 
connected with the south of Scotland perhaps suggested my 
selection for the office. But, however that may be, I do assure 
you that I regard it as a great honour to occupy a position for a 
time of which the first occupant was that distinguished ornitho- 
logist, the late Sir William Jardine of Applegirth—(cheers)—a 
position which has been filled since his time by a succession of 
able and worthy men, each having some special claim to local 
recognition. I regard it as a great honour to preside even for a 
short season over a Society that during the last thirty years has 
held aloft the lamp of scientific culture and antiquarian research 
in this town and district. I am told that it was on the 20th of 
November, 1862—just thirty-two years ago—that the Dumfries. 
shire and Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian Society 
was called into existence, chiefly owing to the initiative of the 
late Dr James Gilchrist, one of the most genial and accomplished 
and loveable men whom I have ever met, and who, had he been 
able to devote himself to pure science, would certainly have 
attained to the highest eminence. (Cheers.) Dr Gilchrist drew 
around him a coterie of kindred spirits, believers like himself in 
the advantages of scientific culture—men like Mr Aird, Mr 
M‘Dowall, Mr Gibson, the Rev. Mr Goold, Dr Dickson, Dr 
Grierson, of Thornhill—and it was by these men, banded 
together into a preliminary committee, that this Society was 
launched and started on that voyage which it has since very 
prosperously pursued, which | hope it will long continue to | 
pursue, and upon which | am sure we shall all wish it God-speed. 
(Cheers.) I should weary you were I to attempt to rehearse the 
excellent work that has been done by this Society since the first 
paper was read—a paper on the Scwtellaria Minor by that 
veteran botanist, the Rev. Mr Fraser, of Colvend. (Cheers.) 
Indeed, it is not needful that I should attempt any such 
rehearsal, for the work of the Society is chronicled in a form 
that is accessible to all of you in the admirable Transactions 
published from time to time. I will only say of these Transactions 
that while, of course, they vary in merit from paper to paper and 
10 
