4 
Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. 
I. — Opening Address by the President, Professor James Geikie, 
LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.G.S., delivered at the First Ordinary Meeting 
for the Session, held on November 3, 1913. 
Gentlemen, — For the high honour you have done me in electing me to the 
Presidency of this, the premier scientific Society of Scotland, I offer you 
my grateful thanks. I am proud indeed that you should have deemed me 
not unworthy to succeed the eminent men who have heretofore occupied 
this chair. My complacency, however, is tempered, if not subdued, by the 
consciousness of my own limitations. But if I cannot, like my predecessors, 
add lustre to the office I hold, I can at least endeavour to devote all my 
energies to the performance of its duties. 
It is matter of sincere congratulation that our Society continues to 
prosper, and to keep up its reputation by the number and value of its 
contributions to the stock of knowledge. During the past session no fewer 
than 46 papers were communicated. Of these 19 dealt with chemical and 
physical subjects; 19 were zoological; 3 botanical; 2 geological ; while 
pure mathematics, engineering, and anthropology were each represented 
by one paper. In addition to these papers, two addresses were delivered 
at the request of the Council — one being physiological and the other 
astronomical. 
During the session, I regret to say, our Society has sustained not a few 
losses — twenty-three of our fellow-members having died. Of this number, 
some will be long remembered by us not only for the distinction of their 
own careers, but for the active part they took in conducting the affairs of 
the Society. 
Ramsay Heatley Traquair, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. . . . Dr 
Traquair became a Fellow of the Society in 1874, and served many years 
on the Council — his first term of office being from 1875 to 1878, and his last 
from 1904 to 1910, when he acted as Vice-President. He communicated 
many important papers to the Society, and was awarded the Makdougall- 
Brisbane and Neill Medals. Dr Traquair died on 24th November 1912, 
. . . [See Obituary Notice, Proceedings , vol. xxxiii. pp. 336-341.] 
John William Shepherd, Glasgow, was elected in 1897. He died on 
26th November 1912. 
