1901 - 2 .] 
Meetings of the Society. 
591 
award is made, and the manner in which these have hitherto been 
interpreted by the Council of the Society. The regulations are as 
follows : — 
“The Prize will be given for a paper of distinguished merit, on 
a subject of Natural History, by a Scottish Naturalist, which shall 
have been presented to the Society during the three years preced- 
ing 8th July 1901 ; or failing presentation of a paper sufficiently 
meritorious, it will he awarded for a work or publication by some 
distinguished Scottish Naturalist on some branch of Natural 
History, bearing date within five years of the time of award.” 
Now, the term “Scottish Naturalist” might be held to mean a 
naturalist of Scottish birth or parentage, but this is not the narrow 
interpretation put upon it by the Council. According to them, a 
Scottish Naturalist means a naturalist residing and carrying on his 
investigations in Scotland, and not necessarily, therefore, one of 
Scottish birth or parentage. And this interpretation has always 
been kept in view by the Council, as is shown by the fact that on 
four former occasions the recipients of the Prize were not Scotsmen. 
I may further point out that it was impossible on the present 
occasion to consider the claims of Scottish Naturalists who had not 
contributed papers to the Society, for the simple reason that the 
Society’s recent publications contained memoirs by Dr J. S. Plett 
and Dr Masterman which the Committee of Recommendation 
appointed by the Council judged to be of high merit and worthy of 
distinction. After careful consideration, the Committee advised 
the Council to award the Prize to Dr J. S. Plett ; and the Council, 
after due deliberation, accepted this recommendation. 
I regret that I cannot have the pleasure of handing the medal to 
Dr Plett himself this evening, but as you are doubtless aware he 
is engaged on a Scientific Commission to examine and report on the 
volcanic phenomena which have been attended with such 
calamitous results in Martinique and St Vincent. We must wish 
him all success in his investigations, which will be laborious, and 
probably not free from danger. Doubtless one result of his work 
will be to give coherency to the somewhat confused, and conflicting 
descriptions of the late appalling eruptions, while we may expect 
to learn from him much concerning the petrology and structure of 
the islands, of which at present little is known to geologists. 
