1889 - 90 .] Chairman's Closing Address. 409 
honorary degree was accorded by the University of Bologna at its 
octo-centenary in 1888. He died on February 13, 1890. 
Sir Peter Coats was Paisley’s foremost citizen, esteemed alike 
for his charitable benefactions to the poor of the town, as well as for 
his princely gifts to the community. The manufacturing firm of 
which Sir Peter was at the head employs about 6000 persons. It 
was to his liberality that Paisley is indebted for the buildings of its 
Public Library and Museum, costing with the site about XI 8,000 
In recognition of this gift he received the honour of knighthood. 
He died on 9th March 1890, at Algiers, in the 82nd year of 
his age. 
Dr Leonhard Schmitz was born at Eupen, near Aix-la-Chapelle, 
in 1807, and settled in England in 1837. In 1844, he published 
from the notes which he had taken in the class-room at Bonn two 
volumes of Niebuhr’s Lectures on Roman History, for which the 
King of Prussia awarded to him the great gold medal for literature. 
In 1846 he was appointed rector of the Royal High School at 
Edinburgh. He was selected to give lectures in history to the 
Prince of Wales and to the Duke of Edinburgh, while the Due 
d’Aumale, the Prince de Joinville, and the Due de Nemours placed 
their sons under his tuition at the High School. After leaving 
Edinburgh he held various appointments connected with the higher 
education of the country. He was projector and editor of The 
Classical Museum , wrote several historical works, and contributed 
largely to the great classical dictionaries, to the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica and other publications. He died at the age of 83. 
On looking over the work done in the last session, and the 
papers in our Transactions recently published, we cannot fail to 
remark that some of the most important communications come from 
the laboratories of the Universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and 
from the laboratory recently founded in this city by the Royal 
College of Physicians. The Firth of Forth also, which Professor 
Ray Lankester has called “the classic sea of naturalists,” has 
furnished materials in its fauna for important biological work. 
It will be noticed that the elaborate investigations of our Secretary, 
