﻿President's Address. 



7 



those by Neill (1808), and Parnell (1837), on the fishes of 

 the Forth; Jameson, on the "Vermes" (1809, the year in 

 which Darwin was born !) ; Laskey, on the Mollusca (1809) 

 Stewart, on the insects generally (1809) ; and Duncan, on the 

 Coleoptera (1831). It was during this period, too, and the 

 succeeding years down to about 1860, that the numerous 

 records on the marine side, due to Sir John Daly ell, E. E. 

 Grant, Prof. E. Forbes, John and Harry Goodsir, Strethill 

 Wright (whose papers on zoophytes enrich the early volumes 

 of this Society), Prof. Allman, and others, were being made. 

 In 1862 a list of Mollusca and some other invertebrates 

 inhabiting the Firth of Forth, drawn up by Dr M'Bain, was 

 published in Wood's East Neuk of Fife. In 1872 the 

 ^ German North Sea Expedition paid a visit to the mouth of 

 the Forth, adding materially to the local data. The next 

 stage in the progress of the marine section was the publication 

 in 1881, in our Proceedings and separately, of Drs G. Leslie 

 and W. A. Herdman's important catalogue, 'The Inverte- 

 brate Fauna of the Firth of Forth.' In this most useful work, 

 which was undertaken by the authors — then connected with 

 the University class of Practical Zoology — at the suggestion 

 of Prof. Sir Wy ville Thomson, are given not only the personal 

 records of the authors themselves and several contemporary 

 naturalists, but also practically all those that had been 

 previously chronicled. The species and varieties enumerated 

 in this catalogue, now of course much out of date, are 648. 

 As a guide to what was known up to that time it is indis- 

 pensible. From the marine laboratory of the Scottish 

 Meteorological Society, for a time established at Granton, 

 additional records, by Dr Henderson and Messrs Cunningham 

 and Eamage, were soon furnished ; but the farther investiga- 

 tion of the marine fauna of the Forth we owe mainly to the 

 Scientific Committee of the Fishery Board for Scotland, of 

 which Prof. Cossar Ewart was the first convener. In this 

 connection it will suffice to mention here, Dr T. Scott's 

 " Catalogue of the Crustacea " (796 species, of which 657 are 

 marine), just published as parts of our Proceedings. 



To return to the terrestrial section ; following the papers 

 in the Wernerian Memoirs already mentioned, and passing 

 over some short lists of land shells and insects by Neill, 



