4 Proceedings of Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
while nine Ordinary and three Honorary Fellows have been taken 
from ns by death. 
The deceased are : — Ordinary Felloivs. — The Rev. John Wilson, 
Admiral Sir Alexander Milne, Professor Henry Drummond, 
Edmond Chisholm Batten of Aigas, James Greig Smith, M.B., 
Professor Matthew Charteris, George Elder, Knock Castle, Thomas 
Brumby Johnston, Rev. Dean Montgomery. 
Honorary Felloivs. — James Joseph Sylvester, Emile Dubois- 
Reymond, Joannes Iapetus Smith Steenstrup. 
It is usual, on the opening of a new Session, to say a few words 
respecting each of the Members of the Society who have died 
during the preceding Session, and I now proceed to discharge that 
duty ; hoping, however, that fuller and more adequate obituaries 
may be communicated by the pious solicitude of friends and 
relatives for the memory of the departed, which the short notices 
I now give are not intended to supersede. 
Of Mr Edmond Chisholm Batten an obituary notice has been 
prepared by his son, Major Chisholm Batten, and will be read at 
an early meeting. 
Professor Matthew Charteris was born in the village of 
Wamphray, in Dumfriesshire. His father was parish schoolmaster 
there, and it was from his father that he received his earliest 
education. From the parish school he proceeded to the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh, where, in his Arts course, he distinguished 
himself by the composition of Latin verses. Applying himself to 
the study of Medicine, he graduated as M.D. in 1863. After 
leaving college he practised successively in London; Airdrie, and 
Glasgow. He was appointed Physician to the Glasgow Royal 
Infirmary, and in 1876 lie obtained the Chair of Practice of 
Medicine in Anderson’s College, Glasgow. In 1880 he was 
appointed to the Chair of Materia Medica and Therapeutics in 
the University of that city. He was well known to the profession 
for his researches into salicylic acid and chloroform. He was the 
author of a work entitled The Practice of Medicine , and also of a 
handbook on Health Resorts. He wrote the paper on “The Treat- 
ment of Diseases by Climate,” in Quain’s Dictionary of Medicine. 
He died on 7th June 1897. He was elected a Fellow of this 
Society in 1896. 
