PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, lvii 
A week after the preliminary meeting—namely, on 7th March, 
1867,—the first ordinary monthly meeting of the Society was held, 
and Dr. White delivered his Inaugural Address as its first President. 
This address was printed and published by the Society, and, as it 
contains a forecast of what the members were to aim at accomplish¬ 
ing, it is very interesting to go back on it now. The correct key-note 
was struck at the very beginning of the Society’s career, for in this 
address the members were urged to work up the Natural History 
of their own county in a systematic manner, and thus to provide 
materials for solving the various problems of distribution and de¬ 
velopment which meet the naturalist on every hand. It was pointed 
out that Perthshire presented a peculiarly favourable field for investi¬ 
gations of this kind, with its wide variations of land-surface, and 
altitude, and a preliminary sub-division of the county into natural 
divisions was suggested. Finally, a hint was thrown out that the 
Society should aim at establishing a Natural History Museum, pre¬ 
cisely on the lines that we are now following out towards completion. 
The words used in this connection, just twenty-eight years ago, are 
so significant, that I shall here quote them in full. He said—“ As 
regards the formation of a Museum, the Society, while not neglecting 
to form a good general typical collection, should more especially 
devote itself to the acquisition of as perfect a Museum as possible of 
all the natural products of the county.” That we have been enabled 
to carry out this aim so far as we have done is largely due to the 
unswerving way in which, during all the years that followed, Dr. 
White kept it in view of the Society. Its final accomplishment he 
was only prevented from seeing by the intervention of the hand of 
death. 
During his connection with the Society Dr. White always held 
one of its offices. The dates of his various terms of office were as 
follows :— 
From March, 1867, to March, 1872 (5 Sessions)— President. 
,, ,, 1872, ,, 1874 (2 ,, )—Secretary. 
,, ,, 1874, ,, 1884 (10 ,, )— Editor. 
,, ,, 1884, ,, 1892 (8 ,, )— President. 
,, ,, 1892, to Dec., 1894 { 2 \ ,, )—Editor. 
I have prepared a chronological list of all his communications to 
the Society, which can be published, for reference, as an appendix 
to this address. From this list it appears that he read one or more 
papers each session, with the exception of one break, namely, from 
1877 to 1879, when he w r as v r orking out the scheme of arrangement 
for the Museum. These communications reach the large total of 
one hundred, and may be summarised as follows :— 
Annual Presidential Addresses, - - - - - 13 
Reports on the Society’s Excursions, - - - - 11 
Reports on the Meetings of the East of Scotland Union 
of Naturalists’ Societies, ..... 4 
Papers on Zoological Subjects, - - - - - 13 
Papers on Botanical Subjects, - - - - - 12 
Papers on Geological Subjects, ..... 3 
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