BELFAST 



NATURAL HISTORY 

 AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY 



SESSION 1910-11. 



i6th November, igio. 



Sir John W. Byers, M.D., President, in the Chair. 



"A PLEA FOR ART." 

 By Mr. Ernest Normand. 



(Abstract.) 



The Chairman said his first duty was to return his most 

 grateful thanks for the great honour that they had done him in 

 his re-election as president of that Natural History and Philoso- 

 phical Society, which was founded as far back as 182 1. He was 

 glad to be able to announce that, thanks to the efforts of their 

 very capable Secretary, Mr. R. M. Young, they were during the 

 ensuing session to have a series of most interesting addresses, and 

 the first — to be given th-it evening, "A Plea for Art" — was by 

 Mr. Ernest Normand, who, for the past twenty-five years, had 

 been a prominent exhibitor of important subject-pictures at the 

 Royal Academy and the Corporation galleries in Great Britain, 

 several of which had acquired large works from his brush. As 

 they were all aware, Mr. Normand's wife ("Henrietta Rae") was 

 also a most distinguished pamter. Mrs. Normand exhibited 

 annually at the Royal Academy, and many of them were familiar 

 with her work. 



Mr. Normand, who was received with applause, said he had 

 been asked to address them on some topic allied to the practice 

 of his own profession, and he had selected a subject which, lying 



