CXxiv PROCEEDINGS-PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
been necessary to alter slightly the order of proceedings. The April 
meeting will not now be held, and my intended Address will, for 
obvious reasons, be reduced to the limit of a very few remarks. 
From the Reports which you have just heard, it will be apparent 
that all branches of the Society’s work are being carried on with 
unabated vigour. In this connection, I had intended, if time per¬ 
mitted, to have continued the “Annals of the Society ” from the 
date at which Dr. Buchanan White left them off, in 1881, down to 
the end of the 19th century. This, however, I hope to do on some 
future occasion, in order to show the steady progress which the 
Society has made during the 35 years of its existence. 
There are two references in the Reports which show, I think, 
that the Society is not selfish in its aims, but that, on the contrary, 
one of its chief objects is to diffuse a love of the Study of Nature far 
beyond the limits of its own members :—I refer to the Lectures to 
Working Men and to the Children’s Essay Competition. To myself, 
personally, it was a source of the greatest pleasure and satisfaction to 
give a course of two or three Lectures and Demonstrations on the 
Principles of Geology to an audience composed entirely of students 
eager to know something more regarding the structure of the earth 
on which they live, and at whose unsolicited request the class was 
organised. The demonstrations also gave an opportunity of explain¬ 
ing in detail the lessons which the Museum collections are intended 
to teach, regarded in the light of illustrations to a series of Text 
Books of Natural Science. It is intended to follow up the classes 
with one or two special Excursions during the summer. 
Regarding the other subject to which I have referred, namely, 
THE CHILDREN’S ESSAY COMPETITIONS, 
I think I am safe in saying that these are fulfilling the purpose for 
which they were instituted in a way which has even exceeded our 
expectations. The Essays sent in show a continued increase, not 
only in numbers, but also in the care bestowed upon their composi¬ 
tion, and in the evidence they bear of original observation. I am 
more than ever convinced that one of the most important aims of 
education should be to enable pupils to write correct, fluent, and 
graceful English, and this is a view which the Education Department 
has emphasised in the most recent Code. Perhaps the best way in 
which this can be accomplished is to ask the pupil to write upon a 
subject in which he or she is really interested, rather than upon a 
more stereotyped subject set as a school task. It is astonishing what 
a large amount of ignorance prevails amongst many people, who are 
otherwise well educated, regarding even the most elementary rules of 
syntax and punctuation. If what I may call our “Free-hand” Essay 
Competitions should do anything to assist our teachers to save the 
rising generation from this slur, our efforts will not have been in vain. 
As regards originality of observation, I shall quote just one or two 
brief passages, to show that the competitors have not been content to 
take their information at second-hand. 
One girl of 13 writes as follows:—“Living between the districts ot 
