PROCEEDINGS-PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, lxxix 
Seggieden; Mr. James Morison, Mr. S. T. Ellison, Ex-Dean of 
Guild M‘Arthur; Mr. James Durham, Dundee, President of the 
East of Scotland Union of Naturalists’ Societies, &c. Apologies 
for absence were intimated from the Marquis of Breadalbane; Lord 
Kinnaird; Professor James Geikie, Edinburgh; Professor Trail, 
Aberdeen; Professor MTntosh, St. Andrews; Mr. J. Martin White, 
M.P.; Rector Chambers; Mr. Hunter, Edinburgh; and Treasurer 
Chalmers. 
The President, in opening the proceedings, said:— 
My first duty this afternoon is to express, on behalf of the 
Council of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, our appreciation 
of the honour which Sir William Flower has conferred on us by 
accepting our invitation to be present with us to-day, and to take part 
in the opening of our new Museum. Sir William Flower has charge 
of one of the most important public institutions in London, and yet 
when we asked him to come down to Scotland to perform the 
opening ceremony, he not only agreed at once, but did so in the 
most kind and flattering terms with regard to the work of our Society. 
My second duty is to express the satisfaction which all who have 
taken an active part in extending the Museum must feel in seeing 
their labours brought to a satisfactory conclusion. Their aim has 
been to provide what would prove for the people of Perth and 
Perthshire an endless source, both of instruction and recreation. 
Whether they have succeeded in their aim or not it will be for the 
people to say. In carrying out that object they have been largely 
helped, both with funds, and specimens, as well as with encourage¬ 
ment, by friends who are not yet members of the Society. For all 
such assistance we offer our most grateful thanks. 
Before calling upon Sir William Flower, it is perhaps right that I 
should trace very briefly the history of the movement, of which the 
present occasion is the consummation. The idea of forming a 
museum such as we now possess has been kept steadily before our 
Society from the very first day of its existence. On 7th March, 1867, 
the late Dr. Buchanan White delivered his inaugural address as first 
President of the Society, and in concluding he used these words :— 
“ 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. ... In the 
meantime, each member might easily collect and lay aside specimens 
for the Museum, and thus, when we obtain a suitable receptacle, we 
shall have the nucleus of a collection.” Eight and twenty years have 
elapsed since these words were uttered, and to-day, I think, we may 
fairly claim that we have seen the ideal realised, although, alas ! 
many of those who helped forward the work have not lived to see its 
completion. The first attempt to form a collection was in October, 
1869, when a room was hired at Kirkside. Within six months, 
however, this was found to be unsuitable, and a larger room was 
taken in St. Ann’s Lane. Many of us cherish very happy memories 
