1891 - 92 .] 
Chairman’s Opening Address. 
5 
It was the privilege of the Society to hear from His Serene 
Highness the Prince of Monaco some account of his new vessel the 
“Princesse Alice,” which has been specially constructed and equipped 
for deep sea investigation. It was a great disappointment to the 
Society that from the delay of the outfit of this ship on the Thames, 
the Fellows had not the pleasure of inspecting the vessel personally. 
We have plenty of records of the outfit of ships for scientific 
exploration, but we have not had the pleasure of inspecting one 
wPich was specially ordered and constructed for scientific purposes ; 
and we all earnestly hope that in the course of the ensuing year 
this privilege may be afforded us. In the meantime we desire to 
record our satisfaction that a man of His Serene Highness’ rank, 
himself every inch a sailor, with his large means, should devote 
himself to pure science, and bring with it in his intercourse with us, 
those unpretending and genial manners which made us, when in his 
company, entirely forget the Prince in the Scientist. 
With the Prince of Monaco we had the pleasure of hearing an 
interesting paper by the Baron de Guerne, the President of the 
Zoological Society of France, who laid before us some results of the 
deep sea exploration by the Prince of Monaco in his sailing vessel 
the ‘‘ Hirondelle,” with admirable illustrations of species, many of 
them new to science, and it will be a pleasant addition to his High- 
ness’ return visit should he be accompanied by the learned Baron 
if the “ Princesse Alice ” should find her way to the Firth of Forth. 
Where the “ Princesse Alice ” at present is I know not, whether 
braving the fierce waves of the Atlantic, or safe in some quiet 
French harbour. We can all earnestly utter the aspiration of 
Horace — 
‘ ‘ Sic te Diva potens Cypri 
Sic fratres Helenae, Incida sidera 
Yentominque regat pater” 
that our wishes may be fulfilled. 
The other paper read last Session which I desire to notice in an 
exceptional way, is our colleague M[r John Aitken’s description of 
his instrument for counting the dust particles in the air, which 
seems to me to be of first-rate importance, and calls for a more than 
passing notice. By it my mind is carried back to the time now 
nearly half a century past, when so much attention was directed to 
