President's Address. 



3 



but it still exists, and has now entered on its eighty-eighth 

 session ; and though its resources are not so large as they once 

 were, the zeal of its members I trust is not abated. We have 

 among us many active naturalists whose labours have advanced 

 natural history, and whose original researches have increased 

 the fame and reputation of our school. 



Besides the Royal Physical Society, there were other Na- 

 tural History Societies in Edinburgh, especially among the stu- 

 dents of the University. One of them was the Plinian Society, 

 which, during its short existence, tended much to foster the 

 spirit of inquiry, and to call forth the efforts of the junior 

 naturalists of Edinburgh. It was essentially a students' society, 

 and met within the walls of the College. It began its ex- 

 istence on 14th January 1823, and continued to meet till about 

 the year 1835. It enrolled among its members many young 

 naturalists who afterwards acquired eminence, such as Wm. 

 Baird, now in the British Museum ; M' Vicar, now minister of 

 Moffat ; Jameson Torrie, well-known for his Natural History 

 labours in connection with his uncle Professor Jameson; Ains- 

 worth, who published Travels in the District of the Euphrates ; 

 Cheeke, the editor of a valuable Natural History Journal ; 

 Malcolmson, celebrated for his geological pursuits in India ; 

 Anderson of Inverness, whose guide to the Geology and Na- 

 tural History of the Highlands is so justly praised ; Robert 

 Grant, now Professor of Comparative Anatomy in London ; 

 John Coldstream, one of the Fellows of our Society, whose 

 labours in Zoology are deservedly famous ; Clouston, now 

 a clergyman at Sandwick, who has done much to elucidate the 

 flora of Orkney ; Woodforde, who published the Flora of 

 Edinburgh ; Lombard of Geneva ; John Addington Symonds, 

 now a distinguished physician at Bristol ; Hugh Falconer, 

 the Indian Botanist and Zoologist; Browne, one of the Commis- 

 sioners of Lunacy, and many others. If I were to analyse the 

 proceedings of that Society, I could show that many of those 

 gentlemen exhibited in their communications the early dawn- 

 ings of their devotion to those departments of science in which 

 they afterwards attained distinction. I feel that not a little 

 of the zeal with which I prosecuted botany was due to my 

 early connection with this Society. 



