of Edinburgh, Session 1871 - 72 . 
531 
Sir Robert Cliristison, Bart., the President, read the 
following Opening Address:— 
At the commencement of this, the 89th session of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, I beg to congratulate you on the successful 
issue of that which has just come to an end. The number of our 
members has increased, in consequence both of a low proportion 
of deaths among us, and likewise of an increase of new members 
beyond the average; so that, from 326 at the same period last 
year, the Society has grown to 331 at the present time. 
We may appeal with equal, and even more, satisfaction to the 
success of our late meetings ; which, in the first place, were carried 
on a full month longer than usual before exhausting the list of 
communications approved by your Council as worthy of being read 
before you; and which, in the second place, attracted from first to 
last unusual attendance and interest, on the part both of ourselves 
and of our visitors, by reason of the variety and value of the in¬ 
quiries communicated at them. 
Nor, amidst these grounds of direct gratification on account of 
the proceedings of last year in the Royal Society itself, will it 
appear out of place that I further congratulate you on the great 
success which attended the late meeting in Edinburgh of The 
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Whether we 
consider who was the founder of this most prosperous institution— 
or that the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Association were 
established very much for the same objects—or that our Fellows 
have taken an active part in its proceedings, wheresoever it may 
have held its meetings—or that our endeavours contributed greatly 
to bring it on the recent occasion to our city—or that many of us 
did much, or at least as much as we could, to receive our eminent 
guests with the cordiality due to their distinction in science—we 
are equally entitled to rejoice that, in respect of the number of 
remarkable men who were attracted hither, the excellence of the 
matter produced before the several sections, the interest of the 
excursions which the unrivalled opportunities in our neighbour¬ 
hood enabled us to offer, the oft-expressed obligations of our guests 
for the reception they met from us and our fellow-citizens, and, I 
