476 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinhurgh. [july 16 , 
1 be cj,fa b c ...), (a b e. . 
where 
<pfabc. . . ) = m-^a + 7^■^^b , 
be. . . ) = + n<^b +p^b‘^ + q^'Zbc , 
(fifa be. . . ) = mya^ + +p^a'%b'^ + qyoi%bc , 
+ 7\%b^ + s^%b‘^c + t^%bcd , 
and that the value of the constant multiplier is the product of 
m-^ — 
m^-n^-p^^q^ 
-p^ + S'3 - ^3 + - fg 
10. Chairman’s Closing Remarks. 
I understand that it devolves on me, as Chairman at this meeting, 
to cast a retrospective glance over the Session which has now come 
to a close, and, in connection therewith, to make a few observations 
of a kind likely to be of general interest to the Society. In en- 
deavouring to discharge this duty, I have to acknowledge that our 
Assistant-Secretary, Mr Gordon, has made my task almost as easy 
as it could be made. 
The Royal Society, as you are all aware, aims not at the popu- 
larising or general diffusion of knowledge, but at its positive extension 
and increase. It exists for the prosecution and encouragement of 
research, for the communication of the results of discovery, for the 
discussion of what is regarded as new in scientific observation or 
explanation. It would not be true to itself were it to receive com- 
munications which merely restated, however elegantly and skilfully, 
facts already known and theories already current. It can only give 
a welcome to those which seem to add something to science, and to 
have a value for experts in science. Such being the case, it is 
extremely gratifying that the supply of appropriate papers should 
never have been more abundant than during the Session which now 
closes. It affords the best of all possible proofs that the spirit of 
