1898 - 99 .] 
Meetings of the Society. 
713 
FIRST ORDINARY MEETING. 
Monday, 5 th December 1898. 
The Rev. Professor Flint, Vice-President, in the Chair. 
1. The Chairman, on opening the Session, made the following State- 
ment : — 
I have to congratulate the Society on the large number of 
papers — most of them involving patient and profound research — 
that were communicated to it during last Session. It will be 
remembered that some of them dealt with subjects appertaining 
to Egyptian and Phoenician archaeology. 
I have also to congratulate the Society on the increase of its 
members that has taken place during the last decade. In 1889 
there were 487 members on the roll, in 1898 there were 517. 
The Fellows of the Society will have been gratified to observe that 
three of their number of last Session have received well-merited 
honours from the Queen. 
A Fellow of this Society, Dr Thomas R. Fraser, Professor of 
Materia Medica and Clinical Medicine in the University of this 
City, has been appointed President of a Commission to report 
upon the plague in India, and several scientific experts have been 
associated with him. The members of the Commission were 
expected to reach Bombay towards the end of last month. Their 
inquiries will include — “ The origin of the different outbreaks of 
plague j the manner in which the disease is communicated ; and 
the effects of certain Prophylactic and Curative Serums that have 
been tried or recommended for the disease.” They have, I am 
sure, the most ardent wishes of this Society for their success in 
the supremely important investigations which have been devolved 
upon them. May Medical Science, as represented by them, gain 
another of those victories over ignorance and disease which are the 
glory of its history. 
I have much pleasure in announcing that the Queen has been 
pleased, on the recommendation of the Secretary for Scotland, to 
approve of the appointment of Professor D’Arcy Thompson, of 
University College, Dundee, to the office of scientific member of 
the Fishery Board for Scotland, vacant by the resignation of Sir 
