nature. Sir W. Scott’s unbounded literary fame, and the personal 
affection in which he was held in Edinburgh, placed him in the 
front of all men who could be competitors for the chair of a Society 
of which already he was the most illustrious member. Sir T. Bris- 
bane was not only one of the most renowned soldiers of his day, 
but was besides a man of high scientific attainment, and a promoter 
of science as wise as he was munificent. I can draw from the 
choice which you have lately made of a successor to such distinguished 
men no other inference than that this Society places a very large 
and generous interpretation upon the qualifications requisite in its 
President, — that you are willing occasionally to connect the office 
with those pursuits of public life which, whilst they are unfavourable, 
I am afraid, to any sustained scientific inquiry, are not incompatible 
with a sincere interest in the progress of science, and a high appre- 
ciation of its value to mankind. 
The following Donations to the Library were announced : — 
Proceedings of the Boyal Society of London. Yol. X., No. 38. 
8vo. — j F rom the Society. 
Proceedings of Berwickshire Naturalist’s Club. 1859 . — From the 
Club. 
Besumc Meteorologique de PAnnee 1858, pour Geneve et le 
Grand St Bernard. Par E. Plantamour. Geneva, 1859. — 
From the Author. 
Silliman’s American Journal. March 1860. 8vo . — From the 
Editors. 
Additional Notes on the Post-Pliocene Deposits of the St Lawrence 
Valley. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D . — From the Author. 
On the Vegetable Structures in Coal. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D. 
1860. 8vo . — From the same. 
On the Silurian and Devonian Bocks of Nova Scotia. By J. W. 
Dawson, LL.D . — From the same. 
On Fossil Plants from the Devonian Bocks of Canada. By J. W. 
Dawson, LL.D . — From the same. 
Monthly Notices of Boyal Astronomical Society. Vol. XX., Nos. 
6 and 7 . — From the Society. 
Beport of the Proceedings of Geological and Polytechnic Society of 
West Biding of Yorkshire. 1859 . — From the Society . 
