PROCEEDINGS 



ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY 



EIGHTY-FIFTH SESSION, 1855-56. 



Wednesday, November 28, 1855. Professor Fleming in the Chair. 



The following Donations to the Lbrary, sent through the Smithsonian 

 Institution, were laid on the table, and the thanks of the Society voted to 

 the donors : — 



1. Eighth and Ninth Annual Reports of Board of Regents. 2. Cata- 

 logue of Publications of Learned Societies, and Periodicals in the Library 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, Parti., January 1855. — From the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. 3. Report of Commissioners of Patents for 1853 — 

 Agriculture. 4. Report of Commissioners of Patents for 1854 — Arts and 

 Manufactures. — From United States Patent Office. 5. Report and Charts 

 of Cruise of U. S. Brig Dolphin, 1854. — From Lieutenant Lee, Naval 

 Observatory, Washington. 



I. Professor Fleming then delivered the Opening Address as follows : — 



Gentlemen, — Six years have elapsed since I had the honour 

 and the pleasure of addressing you from this chair. We were 

 then looking back to the comparatively short period which 

 had elapsed since, on the revival of the Society, we commenced 

 our labours of progress. But although our term of labour had 

 then been short, we had occupied it so successfully that I 

 could, without flattery or reservation, congratulate you on well- 

 executed observations, and express a confident hope that our 

 harvest in future would be still more productive. Every suc- 

 ceeding session has fully realized our expectations ; and the 

 Physical Society, as an association energetically devoted to 

 the study of the departments of science to which we restricted 

 ourselves, may be viewed as an important fact. 



