24 



[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 expressed in them. 



* 



OPENING ADDRESS. 



HE twenty-fifth Winter Session of the Club was held 

 in the Museum, on 1 5th November, when the Presi- 

 dent (Mr. Hugh Robinson, M.R.I.A.), gave the fol- 

 lowing opening address on the subject "A Review of the 

 Progress of Natural Science in Belfast." 



In considering what might be a suitable subject upon which 

 to address you at the beginning of another Winter Session, it 

 has occurred to me, that as our Club has now reached a special 

 point in its existence, having almost attained to a quarter of a 

 Century's career, and ere another Presidential Address will be 

 delivered to you, the twenty-fifth anniversary of its establishment 

 will be past and gone ; it may not be inappropriate to bring 

 before you a short history of the origin and early progress of 

 the Club. Seeing, as I do, before me several of its original 

 members, I feel that to them at least such a subject will not be 

 uninteresting, calling up, as it must do, pleasant recollections 



