1895 - 96 .] 
Chairman's Opening Address. 
11 
low type of man. As a geologist, I have no title to express any 
opinion as to the character of this remarkable calvaria, but I must 
say that I am impressed by the fact that the remains were obtained 
from deposits which seem to be of greater age than those which 
have yielded the earliest relics of man in Europe. According to 
Dubois, the deposits are not only of great extent and thickness, 
but they are charged with the relics of an extinct mammalian 
fauna. These remains have yet to be described ; but from what I 
learned in conversation with M. Dubois, there can be but little 
doubt that they belong to a Pliocene horizon. Now, when one 
recalls the fact that the oldest skulls obtained from Pleistocene 
deposits in Europe — although not so small and apedike as the 
presumably much older calvaria from Java — are nevertheless of 
a low type, one cannot but be much impressed by Dubois 5 dis- 
covery. It is, to say the least, highly suggestive that the oldest 
crania should have this character, and that the most ancient of all 
should be the most ape-like. 
During the past Session we have added to our number fourteen 
Ordinary Fellows, and four British and six Foreign Honorary 
Fellows, but we have at the same time to lament the loss, by death, 
of ten Ordinary Fellows, and two British and three Foreign 
Honorary Fellows. Of these, the usual obituary notices will, in 
due time be communicated to the Society, but I may on this 
occasion be allowed to say a few words regarding each of our 
departed Associates. 
Amongst the losses which come specially home to us as a Society 
is that of our former President, Lord Moncreiff. I regret that I 
can devote only a passing notice to his memory. But the duty of 
delineating his distinguished career as advocate and judge must be 
left to a more capable hand than mine. We were fortunate indeed 
in having him for our President, and I feel sure that I voice the 
opinion of our Society when I say that he most worthily occupied 
the Chair. The brilliant address which he delivered here, giving 
a “Review of the Hundred Years’ History of the Society,” and his 
charming Biographical Notice of the late Mr Campbell Swinton of 
Kimmerghame, are admirable alike in matter and manner. Lord 
Moncreiff was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1870. 
