CXXXV111 PROCEEDINGS—PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE. 
alike by his scientific attainments, by his enthusiasm, and by the 
practical interest he has so long shown in the Society, cannot fail to 
do credit to your choice. 
The Chairman then introduced his successor, Mr. Henry Coates, 
who delivered the following Presidential Address :— 
Gentlemen, —My first duty this evening is to thank you for the 
honour you have conferred upon me in electing me your President 
for the ensuing year. When your Council first proposed my nomina¬ 
tion I had the strongest reluctance to allowing my name to be 
brought forward, being of opinion that the Presidential Chair ought 
to be filled by one with much wider scientific experience, and with 
more leisure for research, than myself. When I remembered the 
names of the four gentlemen who had successively filled this office in 
the past, my scruples were increased ten-fold. One of these, who is 
now no more, devoted the ample leisure of a country life to the study 
of the entomology of his native county; another, whom, happily, 
we still number amongst our office-bearers, has devoted a long 
life to the investigation of the bird-life, not only of this country, but 
of Europe; a third is one of the most accomplished field geologists 
that this country has produced; while the fourth is the distinguished 
botanist who has just vacated the Chair, and of whom I shall have 
more to say presently. After such leaders as these, I can only hope 
to follow at a very respectful distance indeed. Taking these diffi¬ 
culties into consideration, I certainly should not have allowed my 
name to be brought forward, had it not been for the unanimous and 
very encouraging way in which the Council urged the matter upon 
me. Such being the case, I feel sure that I may count upon their 
hearty support in any efforts of mine to maintain the important 
position of the Perthshire Society of Natural Science, and to increase 
its usefulness and popularity. I need hardly add that what I am 
lacking in knowledge and experience I shall endeavour to make up 
for in zeal, and that I shall spare no pains to further the interests of 
the Society where I can do so. 
Your retiring President has given a survey of the past. Allow 
me, for a few moments, before proceeding to the subject proper of 
my address, to look towards the future of our Society. 
In my recent Report as Delegate to the British Association, I 
ventured to express the opinion that we should not be discouraged 
although the attendances at our meetings are not so large as we should 
like them to be. Two causes may be mentioned which in part 
account for this. The first is that in all Societies having for their 
object the study and advancement of some special subject, there 
comes, as it were, a pausing time, when the interest and novelty of 
the subject, in its more superficial aspects, have, for the time, worn 
off. This much I think we may admit to be, to a certain extent, 
the case with our Society. But that the subject itself is exhausted is 
very far from being the case. On the contrary, it is practically, so far as 
we are concerned, inexhaustible. The second excuse for small attend¬ 
ances, and one that is very frequently heard, is the large number 
of other meetings, of a more or less educational and intellectual 
