[Proc. B.N.F.C, 



WINTER SESSION. 



Note. — The Authors of the various papers, of which abstracts are here appended, 

 are alone responsible for the views and statements expressed in them. 



HE first meeting of the fifteenth winter session of the 

 Club took place on the 20th November, when the usual 

 opening address was delivered by the Rev. Canon 

 MacIlwaine. 



Dr. MacIlwaine commenced his address by a review of the 

 proceedings of the British Association at its late meeting in Ply- 

 mouth, and remarked that the number of members present fell 

 short of those attending the Belfast meeting in 1874 by upwards 

 of 700, while the receipts fell short of those at the same meeting 

 by above ^700. Dr. MacIlwaine stated his impression that one 

 cause of such a falling off was the evident departure of the British 

 Association from its original programme, in allowing so many 

 subjects which could not properly be called scientific to be 

 discussed at its meetings, such as the absurdities of spiritualism, 

 which had disgraced the Glasgow meeting, and also such a subject 

 as temperance, which was hardly to be counted scientific. He also 

 suggested that steps might become necessary for bringing back the 

 Association to its original bounds in this respect. The address of 



