6 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
agricultural representative of the Scotsman in the North of Scotland, 
and afterwards became editor of agricultural journals in various parts of 
the United Kingdom. In 1893 he became Secretary of the Highland 
and Agricultural Society, and thereafter his aim was to make the Society 
as prosperous and efficient as possible. 
He travelled extensively in the United States and Canada and on the 
Continent of Europe, and in his book on Food from the Far W est he gave 
the results of his investigations in the North American Continent. The 
work with which his name will be chiefly associated is his edition of 
Stephens’ Book of the Farm, many chapters of which — especially those on 
cattle feeding, stock breeding and rearing — were completely re-written 
by him. 
Mr Macdonald was at the very centre of all the recent movements for 
the development of agricultural education. He became a Fellow of the 
Royal Society in 1894. On account of failing health he resigned his 
Secretaryship of the Highland and Agricultural Society in February 1912, 
and died on 11th November 1913. 
Prof. John Gibson, Ph.D., was born in Edinburgh in 1855, and 
educated at the Edinburgh Academy. He studied chemistry at Heidelberg 
under Bunsen, shortly afterwards returned to Edinburgh, and in 1879 
was appointed assistant to Professor Crum Brown. In 1892 he became 
Professor of Chemistry at the Heriot-Watt College, and continued to 
conduct this growing department of chemical teaching and research till 
his death. 
He communicated a series of papers to our Proceedings, chiefly on 
electrical conductivity of saline solutions, and his analysis of manganese 
nodules,” carried out for the Challenger Expedition, is a valuable analytical 
research. 
He was a profound student of German literature, especially of the 
works of Goethe. 
He became a Fellow of our Society in 1877, and served two terms on 
the Council. 
After a year or two of failing health, he died on 2nd January 1914. 
Robert Traill Omond, LL.D., was born in Edinburgh in 1858, and 
educated at the Collegiate School and Edinburgh University. He was 
chiefly interested in physical science, and was closely associated with 
Professor Tait in various investigations, notably in the experiments on 
the compression of liquids, which arose out of the examinations of the 
