392 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
Monday , 7 th December 1868. 
Professor Cliristison, the President, delivered the following 
Opening Address : — 
Gentlemen, — It is now nearly five-and-forty years since I first 
opened my lips in this Society, a venturous young man, undertak- 
ing to instruct both practical men and men of science, as well as 
the public at large, all at the time keenly interested in the 
inquiry, — What were the principles for properly constructing 
burners for combustion of the light-giving gases? What the rela- 
tive values of oil-gas and coal-gas for giving out light, and which 
of the two should thenceforth be used for illuminating the world? 
At that time it was assuredly the farthest thing of all from my 
dreams that a period might come round when, by the voices of my 
Fellow-Members, I should be promoted to an office, the highest in 
learning or science, as the case may be, which Scotland can offer 
to their votaries, — held last by Sir David Brewster, and previously 
filled by the Duke of Argyll, Sir Thomas Brisbane, Sir Walter 
Scott, and Sir James Hall. 
All these eminent men have been Presidents of the Boyal Society 
of Edinburgh during the period of my Fellowship, except the last : 
whom, however, I often met in the literary and scientific circles of 
which my father was a member. When I recall the remarkable 
services of these five men to learning and science ; their contribu- 
tions to the meetings and Transactions of this Society ; their bear- 
ing among its Fellows, and the universal homage paid to them as 
our official heads, — I am apt to ask myself why it is that I am now 
in the place previously adorned by such men as these ? To this 
question I have but one answer, and it may be an inadequate one. 
The office was not of my seeking. It was not within the range 
of my hopes, or even of my thoughts. But when my appointment 
to the Presidentship of the Society was spontaneously recommended 
to the Society by the Council, I felt that I could not but how to 
their decision, as being the persons best qualified to know what is 
most for the advantage of the Society, and having undoubtedly 
reasons, sufficient to their own minds, for placing in me, for the 
due discharge of the duties of your President, a confidence which 
