XX PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
to know more of the history of the Society than does any other 
member. 
Though the history of the Society has been one of progres¬ 
sion, the progression has not always been at an equal rate, but at 
certain times it has gone forward more rapidly. That this, the 
twenty-first year of the Society, should be one of these periods seems 
but appropriate. I will therefore ask you to consider in what direc¬ 
tion we should endeavour to make an advance. We might, for 
example, endeavour to celebrate this year by raising a fund whose 
interest would suffice to defray the expenses of the Museum, without 
entrenching on the income of the Society; or we might endeavour 
to extend our Museum accommodation, the need for which is 
clamant. But these are matters which, it is to be feared, must be 
left to the dim and distant future, and in the meantime we must rest 
content—and very well content—with our present resources, and 
with the handsome accommodation which the generosity of some of 
our members has been mainly instrumental in providing. There is, 
however, another direction in which advance may be made, and in 
which—if we are to maintain our reputation—advance must be made. 
I mean our publications. Our members and friends in Perthshire 
and its vicinity have an opportunity of judging of the work of the 
Society by its meetings and excursions, by its Museum and its 
Library. But these are beyond the ken of the great scientific world, 
and if we are to take a place in that commonwealth, and make our¬ 
selves known, it must be by our publications. 
Before proceeding to consider what should be aimed at in this 
direction, let me briefly review what has been done in this way 
during the past twenty-one years. In 1870 we published a small 
volume of the Reports of the meetings for the year, but this was 
not continued till 1881, when somewhat similar Reports were begun 
and published yearly till 1886. The objection to these was that 
they were too evidently reprints from the columns of the newspapers; 
and as the newspapers necessarily publish only what is called “popular” 
matter, it necessarily followed that our Proceedings contained for the 
most part only “popular” addresses—-interesting and valuable enough, 
no doubt, in their way, but not calculated to advance the scientific 
reputation of the Society. But the evil did not end there. As 
popular papers, for the most part, were the only ones that were 
sure of publication, there was no inducement to the members to 
communicate to the Society papers of original research if such 
happened to be “dry.” Hence there was a risk in the character of 
our papers deteriorating. 
In addition to the Proceedings , the Society published for a number 
of years a magazine —The Scottish Naturalist■ —which, beginning in 
1871, is still in existence, and, though no longer in connection 
with the Society, some of its regular contributors are to be found 
amongst our members. Possibly it might still have been the Society’s 
had the members at large continued to give it greater support. 
Perhaps, too, the editor got tired after twelve years’ unremitting 
labour on its behalf. 
Now, what are we to do in future? Last session we resolved, as 
