of Edinburgh, Session 1875 - 76 . 
3 
read. Many interesting experiments were shown at our meetings; 
and in particular, our President, at one of our meetings, exhibited 
and explained his wonderful tide-calculating machine, by means of 
which there can be obtained in a few seconds, results which hitherto 
have required minute and laborious calculations. 
The three Prizes which the Society has at its disposal, were 
awarded as follows : — 
The Keith Prize was awarded to Professor Tait, for his paper on 
a “ First Approximation to a Thermo-Electric Diagram.” 
The Makdougall Brisbane Prize was awarded to Professor Lister, 
for his paper u 0n the Germ Theory of Putrefaction and Fermenta- 
tion.” 
The Neill Prize was awarded to Mr Charles William Peach, for 
A 
his “ Contributions to Scotch Geology and Zoology.” 
Gentlemen, an important part of our work as a Society is to 
publish in a volume of Transactions the most deserving of the 
papers read at our meetings. A copy of these Transactions is, as 
you know, obtained gratis by every member. Copies also, to tbe 
extent of considerably above a hundred, go to foreign libraries, 
foreign universities, and foreign societies. Many of these papers 
are necessarily not of so popular a character as to pay, by the 
sale of them, the cost of printing. But these papers, though not 
interesting to the general community, may be of the highest 
importance for the advancement of science. Fortunately our 
Society is sufficiently wealthy to be able to defray the expense, 
not only of printing, but of a large gratuitous circulation. X 
believe that it is a knowledge of this fact which obtains for our 
Society so large a membership, and so satisfactory a revenue. 
With regard to our membership, we have now 358 Ordinary 
Fellows. X observe from the address which I had the honour of 
giving five years ago, that the number then was 326, so that there 
has been in the interval an increase of 32 members. 
The number of members whom we have lost by death is, I am 
sorry to say, larger than usual, being altogether 14. The follow- 
ing are the names alphabetically arranged : — 
