394 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
All I can pretend to do, with the small ability and little leisure of 
which I can avail myself, is to attempt, in a desultory way, as much 
at present as my time admits of my overtaking, and yours of your 
listening to. But I have some hope, nevertheless, that so much 
may be said as to induce my able coadjutors, who annually in suc- 
cession address you from the Chair, to look also a little into the 
materials I have been examining, and to show, by each taking up 
that branch of our history which is most allied to his pursuits and 
congenial to his inclinations, the various branches of learning and 
science on which our Society has more or less shed its rays during 
the last eighty-five years, — the most eventful era, probably, that 
has occurred in the literary and scientific history of this nation. 
It is scarcely necessary to remind you that the Royal Society of 
Edinburgh was created mainly through the influence of Principal 
Robertson, from a pre-existing association of the most illustrious 
Scotsmen of the time, called the Philosophical Society ; which 
again had arisen, through the exertions of Colin Maclaurin, from a 
combination of learned and scientific men who published between 
1731 and 1739 the “ Medical Essays and Observations.” 
The Royal Society, in its early years, was chiefly composed of the 
following remarkable galaxy of genius and talent : — Between 1783 
and 1805 we find, in the branch of Literature , and most of them 
taking tbeir share in the business of the Society, the names of 
Principal Robertson, the Rev. Drs Hugh Blair, Carlyle, and 
Henry; Professors Hill, Dalzel, Ferguson and Fraser-Tytler of 
Edinburgh, Beatty of Aberdeen, Hunter of St Andrews, and Young 
of Glasgow; Hr Doig of Stirling, Henry Mackenzie, and William 
Smellie. In Philosophy — Adam Smith, Thomas Reid, Hugald 
Stewart, and John Bruce. In Mathematics and Physics — Professors 
Matthew Stewart, John Robison, Robert Blair, John Playfair, 
John Leslie, and William Wallace, of Edinburgh ; John Anderson 
of Glasgow, and James Ivory. In Chemistry — Black, Rutherford, 
Hope, Roebuck, and Lord Hundonald. In the Natural Sciences — 
Professors Walker and John Hope, Hutton, Playfair, and Colonel 
Imray. In Medicine — Cullen, the second Monro, James Gregory, 
Francis Home, Andrew Duncan, Sir Gilbert Blane, and Benjamin 
Bell ; and to these must be added a host of conspicuous lawyers 
