President's Address. 



297 



must hope that we may still be favoured by his assistance, 

 although he may not often be able to come amongst us. 

 The work of the Society for the last session has been well 

 divided amongst the members. On the Vertebrata the 

 papers consist of those of Dr Cleland on the articular pro- 

 cesses of the Atlas and Axis ; Dr M'Bain on the anatomical 

 distinctions between the skull of the Manatus senegalensis 

 and a Manatus from the Bay of Honduras ; Mr Edwards on 

 inflammation in fishes, in which he has determined that 

 those animals are quite indifferent to the infliction of wounds ; 

 Mr Peach, of Wick, on the Argentine, Anchovy, and other 

 fishes, and on the termination of the vertebrate column in 

 the tails of the Salmon tribe ; Mr J. M. Mitchell and Mr G. 

 Logan on the natural history and fisheries of the HerriDg 

 and the Sprat ; Mr W. S. Young on the (Equorial pipe- 

 fish and its specific distinctions. In Entomology, Mr B. T. 

 Logan's paper — on the occurrence of Vanessa polyclilora and 

 Clieimatooia borearea in Edinburghshire. On the Ccelentrata 

 two notices by Dr Stre thill Wright — on reproduction in 

 Chrysaora, and on Atractylis coccinea. On the Protozoa we 

 have Dr M'Bain's notices of sponges from Shetland and else- 

 where, together with his very valuable and interesting ex- 

 position of Bowerbank's recent discoveries and classification, 

 and Dr Strethill Wright's papers on reproduction in Ophryo- 

 dendron, on Dendrophrya and Lecythia, and on Bhizopod 

 structure, and his discovery of ova and spermatozoa in that 

 class of animals. In Geology and Mineralogy several very 

 important papers have been read, including Mr B. H. Tra- 

 quair's on the Trilobites of the Carboniferous Limestones of 

 Fifeshire, accompanied by beautiful delineations of species. 

 Mr Andrew Taylor on the exposure of the Liberton Old Bed 

 Sandstone conglomerate bed at Newington ; and Mr John 

 S. Livingston on the state of our knowledge respecting meta- 

 morphism in the mineral kingdom, in which he has given a 

 most interesting account of the production of minerals by 

 artificial means. To all these gentlemen I beg, in the name 

 of the Society, to give cordial thanks for their assistance in 

 the furtherance of its objects. To Dr J. A. Smith, our 

 Secretary, special thanks must be offered for the constant 



