14 
Proceedings of Eoyal Society of Edinburgh. [sess. 
is no lack of papers now offered to the Society, and no reason 
to apprehend that there shall he any scarcity in the present 
Session. 
In looking back at the history of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 
we find that it, like other similar bodies, has had its periods of 
scientific famine and mournful inactivity, but that has not been the 
case for a length of time. It is curious to look back at such a record 
as the following, given by Sir David Brewster in his Presidential 
Address in December 1864. 
• In the closing years of the last and in the first decade of the 
present century the Society was in a very languid condition. In 
each of the years 1799, 1802, 1803, 1808, and 1809, only one of 
the papers read at its meetings was published in the Transactions , 
and in 1801 and 1806 not a single paper read in these years was 
published. While our Transactions were thus scantily supplied 
with papers, those actually read were few in number, and often too 
abstruse to excite a general interest. The regular meetings of the 
Society had frequently no other business than to read the minutes, 
elect members, and receive donations, and this was sometimes 
done in the presence of only the Secretary and one or two 
Members of Council. In such circumstances the Secretary sum- 
moned the members by a billet, printed in red ink when a paper 
was to be read, and one in black when he had nothing to com- 
municate. 
Of course, from the immensity of its domain, and the number of 
questions which it offers for investigation, Physical Science must 
always furnish by far the largest proportion of communications read 
before us. It is, however, I think, to be regretted that so few literary 
papers are presented, and there is a marked contrast between the 
state of matters in the earliest and present position of the Society in 
this respect. It is to be borne in mind that this never was a Society 
devoted exclusively to physical and natural science, but that origi- 
nally it consisted of two distinct sections — the Physical and the 
Literary. In its earlier years the literary class was actually more 
numerous than the physical, and was at least as active, seeing that 
the number of papers printed in the Transactions was about equally 
divided between the two classes. But this was not to continue. It 
is remarkable that many of the most illustrious men in the literary 
