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KOYAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFEICA. 
PKESIDENT'S ADDEESS. 
By S. S. hough, M.A., F.E.S., F.E.S.S.Af. 
(Bead April 20, 1910.) 
It is four years since an address has been delivered from this chair, 
and it is fitting that I should commence by supplementing the reports you 
have just heard from the Secretary and Treasurer by a short reference to 
the history of our Society during those four years. 
It v^ill be remembered that the members of the South African Philo- 
sophical Society, v^ith a growing feeling that the general usefulness and 
standing of the Society might be thereby advanced, had, following the 
example of similar Societies in other Colonies, petitioned His Majesty for 
a Charter of Incorporation, under the title of the Eoyal Society of South 
Africa. 
Objections were raised to the granting of this Charter by representa- 
tives of other South African Societies, and as a consequence, at the 
instance of Lord Milner, the petition was temporarily withdrawn, while 
negotiations were entered into with a view to arriving at some mutual 
understanding. 
The general outcome of these negotiations was that the previous 
objections were referred to a committee, accepted by all concerned as 
representative of the highest scientific interests in South Africa, who 
were instructed to prepare a draft constitution, which, in the light of these 
negotiations, might prove of general acceptance. 
The committee after much consultation arrived at a draft constitution 
which fulfilled these conditions ; the original objections were withdrawn, 
and the petition of the South African Philosophical Society, with certain 
modifications, designed to secure fuller representation on its Executive of 
the best interests of science throughout the whole of South Africa, was 
proceeded with. 
On the 27th of February, 1908, the Secretary was in a position to 
