PEOCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
ROYAL PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 
NINETY-SECOND SESSION, 1862-63. 
Wednesday, 2Gth November 1862. — Alexander Bryson, Esq., 
President, in the Chair. 
Major Frederick Roome, H.M. 10th Regiment, Bombay Native In- 
fantry, and George W. Manson, Esq , H.M. Bengal Staff Corps, were 
elected Non -Resident Members of the Society. 
New Parts of the Proceedings were laid on the table. 
The following donations to the Library were laid on the table, and 
thanks voted to the donors : — 
1. (1.) Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. xxii. 
Part 3., for the Session 1860-61. (2.) Proceedings of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, Session 1860-61 — From the Society. 2. Pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Society of London, Nos. 48-50 — From the So- 
ciety. 3. The Canadian Journal of Industry, Science, and Art. New 
Series. Nos. 38-41, March, May, July, and September 1862 — From 
the Canadian Institute, Toronto. 
Mr Bryson then delivered the Opening Address : — 
Gentlemen, — In opening this the ninety-second Session 
of the Eoyal Physical Society, permit me, as retiring Pre- 
sident, to offer, in the first place, a few remarks on the Pre- 
sent Position of Mineralogy in regard to Physical Science. 
The science of Geology, or the study of the past of our 
earth, naturally divides itself into three branches, Petralogy, 
Mineralogy, and Palaeontology. The first concerns itself 
chiefly with the superposition and dynamic relations of the 
rocks and strata which compose the crust of our globe ; 
while mineralogy is devoted to the chemical qualities of the 
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