188 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society. 



ings might be more numerously attended, is sufficiently 

 obvious to all of us ; but considering the number of similar 

 institutions — each having for its object some special branch 

 of research which necessarily comes within the scope of the 

 Eoyal Physical — the wonder is, not that we should have 

 occasionally to complain of a thinly-attended meeting, but 

 that every meeting should have its quota of new observation 

 and discovery. That we are indebted for this result to a few 

 of our number, more zealous and active than the rest, must 

 be readily admitted; and while we tender to them our 

 warmest gratitude, we may be allowed at the same time to 

 express the hope that their example may in the future have 

 its due influence on others, and especially on the junior 

 fellows. He must be a dull student of nature who does not 

 occasionally observe a new fact, and he must be an indif- 

 ferent or self-sufficient one who does not consider that 

 observation worthy of communication to others, or regards 

 his own explanation of it as beyond revision or correction. 

 The prime object of our Society is to record observation, and 

 in that record to seek to discover the nature and order of the 

 producing causes, and thence, if possible, to arrive at the 

 law or laws by which these causes are related to the entire 

 system of nature. Beyond this there is no higher attain- 

 ment in physical science, and as humble but earnest students 

 we seek by our fellowship in the Eoyal Physical Society to 

 encourage and facilitate each others efforts towards this 

 attainment. Should we fail to determine laws, we may at 

 least endeavour to discover producing causes ; and even 

 should we fail there, we may at all events continue to ob- 

 serve and place our observations on record for the benefit of 

 others. This much, surely, lies within the reach of every 

 member of our brotherhood ; and as the field of nature is 

 vast, and its objects innumerable, the least and most re- 

 stricted of us might continue to contribute his mite to the 

 furtherance of oar common object. 



Geology, as one of the main departments of natural 

 science, and one to which most of the others are more or less 

 related, claims necessarily a large share of our attention ; 

 and thus, on the opening of a new session, a brief review of 



