xxx President's Address 



who know how mildly these words portray our late friend. 

 To those who may be present and who may not have 

 reckoned the late Professor within the circle of their 

 personal friendship, I may be permitted to add, that he was 

 the soul of honour ; " one of the most just men I have 

 ever known" was the expression of his intimate confrere. 

 Though kind and courteous, he was at the same time 

 outspoken, tolerant of weakness, yet a cordial hater of 

 shams and subterfuges, a very soldier of truth. Although 

 the places left vacant by the most eminent are sooner 

 or later occupied, it is perhaps too sanguine to hope for 

 any immediate replacement of all we have lost in the late 

 Professor Wilson. 



Speaking of the business of the Society, I beg now to 

 announce that much has been done towards placing the 

 printing of our Transactions on an improved basis. Volume 

 XL of the Society's Transactions has been published, and 

 since its issue, the intention of the Council to print and 

 publish each paper in a separate pamphlet form, as soon as 

 possible after the reading, has been realized. Enough 

 matter, in this state of detached pamphlets, will soon have 

 accumulated for rendering necessary the publication of a 

 new volume. A catalogue of the Society's library has 

 also been made and printed. It is not asserted that all 

 that is desirable concerning our Transactions, our rapidly 

 accumulating library, and our correspondence with Foreign 

 Societies, has been so far methodised as to admit of no 

 further improvement, but I think it may be asserted that 

 the Council is awake to the full importance of these several 

 matters, and is hopeful of gradually amending whatever 

 may be defective, and of supplying whatever is wanting. 



In the last Annual address, it was proposed that members 

 reading papers before the Society should furnish a concise 

 and clear abstract for the use of the press. I am glad to 



