1920 - 21 . 
Meetings of the Society. 
219 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE STATUTORY GENERAL MEETING 
Ending the 138th Session, 1920-1921. 
* At the Statutory Meeting of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, held in the Society’s Lecture 
Room, 24 George Street, on Monday, October 24, 1921, at 4.30 p.m., 
Professor F. 0. Bower, F. R.S., President, in the Chair, 
the Minutes of the last Statutory Meeting of October 25, 1920, were read, approved, and signed. 
The Chairman nominated as Scrutineers Mr C. H. Milne and Dr J. B. Ritchie. 
The Ballot for the Election of Office-Bearers and Members of Council was then taken. 
The Secretary submitted the following Report : — 
The number of papers read at our meetings during the last Session was 35, as compared with 
27 the previous Session. Of these, 3 were addresses: the first by the President on “Size a 
Neglected Factor in the Internal Morphology of Plants”; the second by Lt.-Col. Liston on 
“Plague and Rats” ; and the third by Mr C. T. R. Wilson on “Some Recent Work on Lightning 
and Thunderstorms.’’ Of the others, 5 were in mathematics, 1 in statistics, 9 in physics, 2 in 
chemistry, 5 in zoology, 2 in botany, 5 in geology, 2 in oceanography, and 1 in engineering. 
Twenty-eight of these have been, or are being, published — 11 in the Transactions and 17 in the 
Proceedings. 
Last Session the Society elected 25 new Ordinary Fellows, and 9 Honorary Fellows — 4 British 
and 5 Foreign. Three Fellows have resigned, and we have lost by death 4 Honorary Fellows and 
22 Ordinary Fellows. 
The Makdougall-Brisbane Prize was awarded to Professor J. H. Maclagan Wedderburn of 
Princeton, U. S. A. ; and the Gunning Victoria Jubilee Prize to Mr C. T. R. Wilson of Cambridge. 
The vacancy in the post of Assistant Librarian, occasioned by the resignation of Miss Le 
Harivel, has been filled up by the appointment of Mr Ernst M. Stewart. 
The high cost of printing and publication still continues to hamper the work of the Society . 
To meet to some extent the increased expense, the Council asked the Society to amend Law VI 
and raise the annual subscription by one guinea. This was agreed to, and the amendment of 
Law VI was duly carried out at the Meeting of February 7, 1921. 
The Grant of £3000 from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust for binding the journals in the 
Library is now nearly all expended ; and again the Society takes the opportunity of expressing its 
thanks to the Trust for their generous help. 
The Conjoint Board of Scientific Societies has prepared an important report on the question of 
aid to Scientific Societies for publication of papers, and our representatives have been instructed 
to look specially to our interests in any further developments which may occur. 
One of the great events of the year was the Meeting of the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science. This our Society helped by a donation of £100 towards the local expenses and 
by inviting the Members to a free use of the Library and Reading-room. The Secretaries also 
organised, by request of the Council, a Royal Societies dinner, at which our Society entertained 
Fellows of the Royal Society of London, Members of the Royal Irish Academy, and distinguished 
Foreign visitors who were members of their National Academies. The dinner was held in the 
Freemasons’ Hall on Monday, September 12, when our President, with the Maharaj Rana of 
Jhalawar on his right hand, presided over a gathering of one hundred and eighty-one scientific 
men from many lands. 
During the summer, and especially in view of the British Association Meeting, the Council 
arranged for cleaning and painting the west staircase and lecture room, and laying new matting 
on the stairs. 
As will be seen from the Treasurer’s Report, the financial condition of the Society is fairly satis- 
factory. notwithstanding these exceptional but necessary outlays during the Session. 
The Treasurer in submitting his Report for the year compared the Income and Expenditure 
with those of the previous year. 
Dr R. Kidston, F. R S. , moved the adoption of the Reports and the reappointment of Messrs 
Lindsay, Jamieson & Haldane, C.A., as auditors of the accounts for the ensuing Session. 
This was unanimously agreed to. 
