170 
Proceedings of Royal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
114th SESSION— 1896-97. 
(Meeting December 7, 1896.) 
Prop. JOHN GRAY M‘KENDRICK, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
Chairman’s Opening Address. 
The Council has done me the honour of requesting me to open 
the 114th Session of the Society, and to offer some remarks that 
may be deemed appropriate to the occasion. 
Present State of the Society. 
There has been an unusual number of candidates for admission 
during the past Session, 26 Eellows having been elected. Of 
these nine are Professors and Lecturers in various Universities 
and Colleges, and eight are Doctors or Bachelors of Medicine. 
The total number of Ordinary Eellows is 513. At the correspond- 
ing date last year the number of Ordinary Eellows was 505.* 
In the first place, I may be allowed to refer to some of the inci- 
dents in the not uneventful history of the Society during the past 
year. 
Lord Kelvin’s Jubilee. 
In June last, the Jubilee of the appointment of our President, 
Lord Kelvin, to the Chair of Natural Philosophy in the University 
of Glasgow, was celebrated in that city by Delegates from the 
Scientific Societies of all parts of the world. This was an occasion 
unique in the history not only of the University on which Lord 
Kelvin’s career has shed so brilliant a lustre, but also of any 
University in the United Kingdom. It is true that a few other 
Professors in our Universities have held office for fifty years, and 
have thus reached their jubilee, but never was there such a 
gathering to do honour to one man. The felicitations then offered 
were an expression of admiration of the splendid work Lord 
Kelvin has accomplished in Mathematical and Physical Science, 
and of the rare ingenuity and skill he has brought to bear on the 
invention of electrical and other devices which have contributed 
* For these details, and also for the notices of deceased Fellows, I am 
indebted to the kindness of the Librarian, Mr James Gordon. 
