188 Froceedings 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 
Koyal 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 w^ho 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 Koyal 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 
