37S8 Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. 



Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh. 



The first meeting of the eighty-second session of the Koyal Physical Society was 

 held on Saturday, November 13, at two o'clock, at 6, York Place, when there was a 

 very full attendance of members and visitors. 



Dr. Coldstream, on taking the chair, delivered the following opening address, 

 for which the cordial thanks of the Society were tendered to him : — 



" There has been of late a great increase in the numbers of earnest and successful 

 students of nature. In all parts of the three kingdoms we find accomplished natu- 

 ralists ; here solitary, there in groups. Go where you will, you meet with, or you hear 

 of some industrious geologist or zoologist. In the most remote localities you are pre- 

 sented with the proofs of youthful zeal in collecting, or of laborious earnestness in 

 examining : the scalpel and the microscope, the pencil and the pen, are all diligently 

 employed in situations and circumstances in which they were, till lately, almost un- 

 known. I believe that the many admirable papers and monographs which are pub- 

 lished almost daily in our scientific journals, and transactions of societies, supply 

 imperfect indications of the amount of natural history research constantly carried on. 

 There is a large body of sincere lovers of nature who have learned to search out the 

 wonderful works of God for their own sakes, — to gaze upon their beauty, as expressive 

 of the ineffable attributes of the Divine mind, — and to realize in their own souls those 

 healthful emotions which the contemplation of creation in a proper spirit never fails to 

 inspire. Doubtless all now present agree with me in regarding this state of matters 

 as in a high degree satisfactory and encouraging ; for most of us have felt how good 

 a thing it is to consider the admirable forms, structures, and functions of the created 

 objects that surround us ; and we desire nothing more than to have this good, of which 

 we have tasted, shared in by others. The constitution of our nature does not admit of 

 all men becoming naturalists, but we are sure that it would be greatly for the ad- 

 vantage of society at large were the taste for natural history still more widely diffused 

 than it is even now. And it is to promote such diffusion that this and kindred societies 

 have been instituted and are maintained. The earnest spirit of research, once fully 

 roused, generally impels those actuated by it to seek for the society of persons like- 

 minded, to impart to them their discoveries and their theories, and to exchange expres- 

 sions of mutual sympathy. Hence it is that associations of naturalists have existed 

 in all places and in all times, in which true philosophy held sway. At no time, how- 

 ever, were they more needed than at present, when the sciences of observation have 

 been so greatly enlarged that it is hardly possible for any one mind to grasp the whole 

 range of them. There is neither capacity deep enough, nor life long enough, to enable 

 any man to possess himself of the recorded results of modern scientific research. And 

 yet a general knowledge of the progress of discovery, in all the fields cultivated, is 

 essential to the satisfactory working of any one of them. Every naturalist worthy of 

 the name feels the desirableness of watching the advance of others in the domains 

 beyond his own. To get on well in his own field, he must at least occasionally ascend 

 a hill, and observe what is doing in his neighbour's fields. And just such posts of 

 observation are societies like this. We come together for mutual improvement in the 

 knowledge of nature, and, by the expression of that sympathy which all naturalists 

 love to cherish, to cheer one another onwards in our respective paths. The prime 

 object at which we aim is the increase of our acquaintance with creation, which ought 



