184 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE PERTHSHIRE SOCIETY OF NATURAL SCIENCE, 
nominated by the Council and appointed by the General Com¬ 
mittee of the British Association, for the purpose of considering 
these applications, as well as for that of keeping themselves 
generally informed of the annual work of the Corresponding 
Societies, and of superintending the preparation of a list of the 
papers published by them. This Committee shall make an 
annual report to the General Committee, and shall suggest such 
additions or changes in the List of Corresponding Societies as 
they may think desirable. 
(4) Every Corresponding Society shall return each year, on or 
before the first of June, to the Secretary of the Association, a 
schedule, properly filled up, which will be issued by the Secre¬ 
tary of the Association, and which will contain a request for 
such particulars with regard to the Society as may be required 
for the information of the Corresponding Secieties Committee. 
(5) There shall be inserted in the Annual Report of the British 
Association a list, in an abbrevated form, of the papers published 
by the Corresponding Societies during the past twelve months 
which contain the results of the local scientific work conducted 
by them; those papers only being included which refer to sub¬ 
jects coming under the cognizance of one or other of the various 
Sections of the Association. 
(6) A Corresponding Society shall have the right to nominate 
any one of its members, who is also a member of the Association, 
as its delegate to the annual meeting of the Association, who 
shall be for the time a member of the General Committee. 
Conference of Delegates of Corresponding Societies. 
(7) The Delegates of the various Corresponding Societies shall 
constitute a Conference, of which the Chairman, Vice-Chairmen, 
and Seeretaries shall be annually nominated by the Council, and 
appointed by the General Committee, and of which the members 
of the Corresponding Societies Committee shall be ex ojicio 
members. 
The Conference of Delegates shall lie summoned by the Secre¬ 
taries to hold one or more meetings during each annual meeting 
of the Association, and shall be empowered to invite any mem¬ 
ber or associate to take part in the meetings. 
The Secretaries of each Section shall be instructed to transmit 
to the Secretaries of the Conference of Delegates copies of any 
recommendations forwarded by the Presidents of Sections to the 
Committee of Recommendations bearing upon matters in which 
the co-operation of Corresponding Societies is desired; and the 
Secretaries of the Conference of Delegates shall invite the 
authors of these recommendations to attend the meetings of the 
Conference and give verbal explanations of their objects and of 
the precise way in which they would desire to have them carried 
into effect. 
It will be the duty of the Delegates to make themselves familiar 
with the purport of the several recommendations brought before 
the Conference, in order that they and others who take part in 
the meetings may be able to bring those recommendations clearly 
and favourably before their respective Societies. The Conference 
may also discuss propositions bearing on the prometion of more 
systematic observation and plans of operation, and of greater 
uniformity in the mode of publishing results. 
From these rules it will be seen that our Society will 
have the honour and benefit of being connected with the 
great central Association so long as we undertake local 
scientific investigations and publish notices of the results. 
I hope this may prove an additional stimulus to our mem¬ 
bers to pursue scientific work, so that our Society may not 
be behind others in either quantity or quality of work from 
year to year. 
I shall not attempt to give even a resumf of the 
papers read at the sectional meetings. The chief ones 
have been reported with remarkable promptitude in the 
Times, Scotsman, Nature, and other papers and journals. 
The proceedings were fittingly commenced by admirable 
addresses from His Excellency the Governor-General and 
the President, Lord Rayleigh, who gave a very interesting 
review of recent progress in science, especially Physics. I 
shall only quote the closing words of his Lordship’s address, 
with the recommendation that if you have not read the 
whole you ought now to do so. His Lordship concludes as 
follows:— 
Without encroaching upon ground* appertaining to the theo¬ 
logian and the philosopher, the domain of natural science is 
surely broad enough to satisfy the wildest ambition of its 
devotees. In other departments of human life and interest, true 
progress is rather an article of faith than a rational belief; but 
in science a retrograde movement is, from the nature of the 
case, almost impossible. Increasing knowledge brings with it 
increasing pewer, and great as are the triumphs of the present 
century, we may well believe that they are but a foretaste ef 
what discovery and invention have yet in store for mankind. 
Encouraged by the thought that our labours cannot be thrown 
away, let us redouble our efforts in the noble struggle. In the 
Old World and in the New, recruits must be enlisted to fill the 
place of those whose work is done. Happy should I be if, 
thraugh this visit of the Association, or by any words of mine, a 
larger measure of the youthful activity of the West could be 
drawn into this service. The work may be hard, and the dis¬ 
cipline severe; but the interest never fails, and great is the 
privilege of achievement. 
The addresses of the various Presidents of Sections were 
also valuable and instructive, and I listened with, special 
interest to the address of Sir H. Roscoe, President of the 
Chemical Section, who reviewed the history of chemical 
science during the last 40 years. Had time permitted, I 
would have liked to give a few quotations, but I forbear. 
I shall only refer very shortly to some of the excursions 
provided for the members of the British Association. The 
great one in every sense was that to the Rocky Mountains, 
via the new Canadian Pacific Railway, which stretches 
2500 miles westward from Montreal. Return tickets were 
