Pi -esiden t's A ddress . 



100 



near Auchterarder ; the supposed meteorite having been 

 sent to him, after a chemical analysis made by our distin- 

 guished member, Dr Murray Thomson, proved to be a mass 

 of bisulphide of iron, accompanying common coal, and in 

 no way connected with meteoric phenomena. In physiology 

 and zoology, excellent papers have also been produced. Mr 

 Edwards " On Torn-off Digits in Man, with reference to 

 analogous injuries in the Lower Animals/' and his ingenious 

 and instructive " Notes on some Surgical Homologies ; " 

 Professor MacDonald's able and learned exposition " On the 

 Osteological Homology of the Vertebrate Cranium ; " and 

 " Kemarks on a Peruvian Skull/' by Dr James M'Bain. Dr 

 Thomas Stre thill Wright continues his brilliant and original 

 " Observations on British Zoophytes," which have already 

 stamped him as one of the best and most accurate observers 

 of the present day. Other zoological papers by Dr John A. 

 Smith, Mr Wm. Eamsay M'Nab, Mr Chas. Peach, and Mr 

 George Logan, are also worthy of commendation. This, it 

 will be confessed, is a goodly amount of work done during 

 the past Session, both in extent and variety, and is at once 

 an index of the vigour that now animates the Society, and 

 a good security for continued progress. 



In the midst of our congratulations we are admonished by 

 the solemn warning that death has again entered our ranks, 

 and snatched from amongst us one of our best and most 

 eminent members. Since last meeting the Society has to 

 deplore the loss of Dr John Coldstream, who, had he lived, 

 would have occupied the chair as Senior President during 

 this Session — an office which he formerly held with credit to 

 himself and advantage to the Society. It would be difficult 

 to over-estimate the worth and excellence of character of 

 this most amiable and estimable man. His intimate friends 

 were not more struck with his modest unassuming manner, 

 than by the wide and varied range of scientific knowledge 

 he possessed. And it soon became evident to those less 

 familiar with him, that this information had been acquired 

 by diligent personal observation made on the animals and 

 plants that inhabit our marine shores, as well as by carefully 

 conducted experimental researches performed in the tebora- 



