President''s Address. 23 



some of them would recollect that, in the year 1871 the com- 

 pletion of his fifty years' connection with the Society was 

 commemorated with an address — a copy of which he (Dr. 

 Hamilton) had in his possession — which was presented to Mr. 

 Patterson, he supposed in that room. In that address, which 

 was signed by the principal people of Belfast, was used this 

 remarkable language about him—" There is no living man who 

 has done more for the popularisation of the study of natural 

 history in Ireland, or for the giving to it its legitimate place in 

 the education of the young." That language was perfectly true. 

 From the publication of Mr. Patterson's first work, the letters 

 regarding the insects mentioned in Shakspere, down through 

 their various divisions to his "Zoology for Schools" and zoolo- 

 gical diagrams, he had one object before him — to press upon the 

 people the study of natural history and make that study easy. 

 It therefore ought to be a matter of very great gratification to 

 that Society — and not only to that Society but to the whole of 

 Belfast — that there would now be in that Museum a portrait of 

 Mr. Patterson to preserve his features and memory for gener- 

 ations yet to come. But there was one more extremely pleasant 

 feature in the proceedings of that evening. Unfortunately, as 

 they all knew, eminent men had not always sons who were like 

 minded. There had been exceptions to that rule, but unfor- 

 tunately they were not numerous. No one, however, could have 

 listened to the paper read there that night without recognising 

 very clearly the fact that in this case Mr. Robert Patterson, 

 senior, had a son who was worthy of his sire. It was extremely 

 pleasant to find that it was so, and to know that the name was 

 still honoured in the present generation — honoured indeed in 

 more than the present generation, for in the third and he 

 believed in the fourth generations the talent was still descending. 

 Many of them no doubt had enjoyed as he (the speaker) had 

 done the pleasant companionship of his " Birds, Fishes, and 

 Cetacea of Belfast Lough." It had been to him a most useful 

 and charming companion in many a seaside ramble. 



Mr. Robert Young, J.P., seconded the motion. He could 



