PEOCEEDINGS 
OF THE 
KOYAL SOCIETY OF EDINBURGH, 
VOL. XII. 1883-84. No. 118. 
Monday, 21st July 1884 — continued. 
The President gave a short Eeview of the Session, and 
added some closing Eemarks as follows : — 
The President said — This session of the Eoyal Society, not the 
least interesting or remarkable of the series, is now about to close. 
I have been furnished with a statement; of the papers which have 
been read, which exhibits a creditable amount of industry as well 
as of ability among its members. It seems that of these 16 were 
in Natural Philosophy, 15 in Mathematics, 6 in Geology, 2 in 
Chemistry, 6 in Mineralogy, 6 on Meteorology, 2 in Spectroscopic 
Astronomy, 4 in Natural History, 5 on Botany, 5 in Physiology, 
1 on Language, 2 on History and Antiquities, 2 on Anthropology, 
and 5 on Political Economy. 
We have sustained some severe losses by death in the course of 
the Session. Two very celebrated men, whom we had the honour 
to number among the Foreign Honorary Fellows of the Society, 
died within a few weeks of each other — M. Dumas, the Perpetual 
Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, having died on the 
4th of April 1884; and M. Adolphe Wurtz, his friend and fellow- 
labourer, who pronounced a funeral oration on his death, having 
himself died on the 12th of May. Both these distinguished men 
were renowned throughout Europe for the invaluable contributions 
they had made to Chemical Science, and specially to that branch of 
it known as Organic Chemistry, in regard to which M. Dumas may 
be said to have initiated a new departure. He was born in 1800 
3 s 
VOL. XII. 
