xliv PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
REPORT OF EDITOR. 
The only publication issued during the past year wa: the second 
part (new series) of the Transactions a 7 id Proceedings. 
« 
The following Office-bearers were elected :— 
President —F. Buchanan White, M.D., F.L.S., F.E.S. 
Vice-Presidents —Captain D. M. Smythe, yr. of Methven; William 
Ellison, R. H. Meldrum, and John Thomas. 
Secretary —S. T. Ellison. 
Treasurer- —John Stewart. 
Curator —Colonel H. M. Drummond Hay, C.M.Z.S. 
Librarian —James Coates. 
Editor —Henry Coates, F.R.P.S. 
Councillors —J. Clacher, James Stewart, L.D.S., and T. M. M‘Gregor. 
The President delivered the following Address :— 
Gentlemen,— There is at least one drawback to the honour 
which you conferred upon me last year of re-electing me to the office 
of President, namely, that with each succeeding year it is more 
difficult to find for the Annual Address a subject which will combine 
the two essentials of novelty and general interest. 
On this occasion I shall have, in part at least, to fall back upon 
a subject that has been already treated of—the extension of the 
Museum accommodation. 
At a previous Annual Meeting I laid before you a scheme and 
plans for this necessary extension, and if I bring it forward again it 
is only because my views have been somewhat modified by circum¬ 
stances. When I spoke of the subject before, the objection was 
made that I wished the Society to launch forth into an expenditure 
that it could not meet. On this occasion, therefore, I hope it will 
be clearly understood that, in laying a scheme before you, I wish 
simply to point out an object that the Society must keep in view if 
it is to progress in the future as it has done in the past. It will, too 
probably, be years before we are in a position to go on with the 
extension; but, if it is ever to be done, it is not too soon to consider 
in what way it should be carried out. It is unnecessary to repeat in 
great detail the reasons why more space is necessary. In one or two 
departments—as, e.g, the entomological and botanical of the Perth¬ 
shire collection—we are not yet pressed for room, but in all the 
others the reverse is the case. Look, for example, at one of the 
most interesting collections in the Museum, that of the nest and eggs 
of Perthshire birds. There not only are the specimens so crushed 
together that their characteristics are often partly concealed, but a 
number of examples cannot be exhibited at all. The latter is also 
the case with the collection of fishes, with the geological collection, 
and, in fact, with most of the other collections, not excepting the 
index. Having no room to exhibit all the specimens we have, there 
