April 26th, 192 1.] Proceedings. xxi. 



The following members were elected officers of the Society 

 and members of the Council for the ensuing' year : — 



President : T. A. Coward, F.Z.S., F.E.S. 



Vice-Presidents: R. L- Taylor, F.C.S., F.I.C. ; William 

 Thomson, F.R.S.E., F.C.S., F.I.C; Sir Henry A. Miers, M.A., 

 D.Sc, F.R.S.; W. Henry Todd. 



Secretaries : H. F. Coward, D.Sc, F.I.C. ; T. H. Pear, M.A., 

 B.Sc. 



Treasurer : R. H. Clayton, B.Sc. 



Librarians : C. L. Barnes, M.A. ; Wilfrid Robinson, D.Sc. 



Curator : W. W. Haldane Gee, B.Sc, M.Sc.Tech., A.M.I.E-E. 



Other members of the Council : Arthur Lapworth, D.Sc., 

 F.R.S., F.I.C; C E. Stromeyer, O.B.E., Mem.Inst.CE., 

 Mem.Inst.M.E. ; W. M. Tattersall, D.Sc ; Leonard E. Vlies, 

 F.C.S., F.I.C; F. W. Atack, M.Sc.Tech., B.Sc, F.I.C; F. E. 

 Weiss, D.Sc, F.R.S., F.L.S. ; Francis Jones, M.Sc, F.R.S.E., 

 F.C.S. ; Laura Start, M.Ed. ; Sydney Chapman, M.A., D.Sc, 

 F.R.S. 



Ordinary Meeting, April 26th, 192 1. 

 vSir Henry A. Miers, M.A., D.Sc, F.R.S., in the Chair. 



Mr. C L. Barnes, M.A., made a short communication on the 

 Green Ray sometimes seen when the sun is setting behind a 

 well-defined horizon, the last appearance of the disc being a 

 bright green flash. He referred to the novel of that name 

 written many years ago by Jules Verne, and to an explanation 

 of the occurrence in Nature of February 10th, 1921. 



Mr. A. D. Ritchie, M.A., read a paper entitled "The 

 Nature of the External World." An examination of 

 Professor A. N. Whitehead's views on the Scope of Physics. 



Most of the knowledge we possess can be included under the 

 title of Physics, as eveiy worker in every branch of science 

 applies its results and methods. . Pl^sics is an experimental 

 science that depends upon experience. It is strange therefore 

 that the entities and processes in terms of which physics 

 describes the external world are none of them such as we are 

 acquainted with by experience. Some thinkers have argued 

 that the conceptions of physics are not real but merely conve- 

 nient fictions. Professor Whitehead, on the other hand, 

 endeavours to demonstrate that these conceptions are perfectly 

 logical constructions from the primitive data of experience and 

 hence are real ingredients of nature. 



The fundamental facts from which he starts are Events. 



