but it still exists, and has now entered on its eighty-eighth session; and though its resources are not so large as they once were, the zeal of its members I trust is not abated. We have among us many active naturalists whose labours have advanced natural history, and whose original researches have increased the fame and reputation of our school. Besides the Royal Physical Society, there were other Natural History Societies in Edinburgh, especially among the students of the University. One of them was the Plinian Society, which, during its short existence, tended much to foster the spirit of inquiry, and to call forth the efforts of the junior naturalists of Edinburgh. It was essentially a students' society, and met within the walls of the College. It began its existence on 14th January 1823, and continued to meet till about the year 1835. It enrolled among its members many young naturalists who afterwards acquired eminence, such as Wm. Baird, now in the British Museum; M'Vicar, now minister of Moffat; Jameson Torrie, well-known for his Natural History labours in connection with his uncle Professor Jameson; Ainsworth, who published Travels in the District of the Euphrates; Cheeke, the editor of a valuable Natural History Journal; Malcolmson, celebrated for his geological pursuits in India; Anderson of Inverness, whose guide to the Geology and Natural History of the Highlands is so justly praised; Robert Grant, now Professor of Comparative Anatomy in London; John Coldstream, one of the Fellows of our Society, whose labours in Zoology are deservedly famous; Clouston, now a clergyman at Sandwick, who has done much to elucidate the flora of Orkney; Woodforde, who published the Flora of Edinburgh; Lombard of Geneva; John Addington Symonds, now a distinguished physician at Bristol; Hugh Falconer, the Indian Botanist and Zoologist; Browne, one of the Commissioners of Lunacy, and many others. If I were to analyse the proceedings of that Society, I could show that many of those gentlemen exhibited in their communications the early dawnings of their devotion to those departments of science in which they afterwards attained distinction. I feel that not a little of the zeal with which I prosecuted botany was due to my early connection with this Society. Unfortunately, like some other societies, it had its decay and decline, and, after a brief existence of about twelve years, it ceased to exist. On 6th Febuary 1841, the society was dissolved, and its books and herbarium were divided between the Royal Medical and the Hunterian Medical Societies. In its flourishing days this Society was supported mainly by students, and it is probable that its decline may be attributed in some measure to the want of some zealous senior members resident in Edinburgh, who, by associating with students in practical natural history, would have kept up the vigour of the Society. We now come to another Natural History Society, the nature of which differed essentially from that of the Plinian and other student-societies, and whose period of existence extended over more than forty years, but which has also come to a termination-I mean the Wernerian Natural History Society. This Society owed its origin to Professor Jameson, whose enthusiastic devotion to natural history, and whose eminence in mineralogy rendered his name famous all over the world. The Society thus instituted by him was restricted to senior naturalists. While it lasted, it rendered good service to science, and by the publication of its valuable Memoirs acquired a wide-spread reputation. The Wernerian Society commenced in 1808, and the following is the record of its foundation: COLLEGE MUSEUM, Edinburgh, 12th January 1808. The following gentlemen being met, viz. : : ROBERT JAMESON, F.R.S.E., Professor of Natural History. THOMAS MACKNIGHT, D.D., F.R.S.E. JOHN BARCLAY, M.D., F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Anatomy. THOMAS THOMSON, M.D., F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Chemistry. Col. STEWART MURRAY FULLERTON of Bartonholm. CHARLES ANDERSON, M.D., F.R.C.S.E. PATRICK NEILL, A.M. They resolved to associate themselves into a society for the purpose of promoting the study of Natural History; and in honour of the illustrious Werner of Freyberg, to assume the name of the Wernerian Natural History Society. Professor Jameson having been called to the chair, the following office-bearers were unanimously elected : It being understood that the Society should consist of honorary, foreign, non-resident, and ordinary members, it was moved by the president, and unanimously agreed to, that Professor WERNER of Freyberg, Sir JOSEPH BANKS, Bart., President of the Royal Society, and RICHARD KIRWAN, Esq., President of the Royal Irish Academy, be enrolled as the first honorary members of the Society. The following gentlemen were then chosen non-resident members : : Dr JAMES EDWARD SMITH of Norwich, President Linnean Society. Rev. Dr JOHN STUART of Luss. DAWSON TURNER, F.R.S., Yarmouth. GEORGE SHAW, M.D., F.R.S. WM. HENRY, M.D., Manchester. And the following were elected foreign members: M. FREDERICK Möнs, Styria. M. VON HUMBOLDT, Berlin. M. FREIESLEBEN, Thuringia. Such then was the institution of the Wernerian Society. On the 20th January 1808, the laws of the Society were drawn up by a committee. In regard to resident members it is ruled that the number shall not exceed 100; and in regard to honorary members that they shall not exceed 10. The meetings were held in the College Museum, or in a room adjoining to it, at two o'clock in the afternoon. All natural history specimens presented to this Society were to be deposited in the College Museum. A charter or seal of cause was subsequently obtained from the Town-Council, and the Society was incorporated on 10th February 1808, under the name of the Wernerian Natural History Society. The first meeting for public business took place on 2d March 1808, in the College Museum. The record of the proceedings of the Society from that time up to April 21, 1838, is printed as an appendix to the published Memoirs of the Society, vols. ii.—vii. In these volumes valuable papers are given on various departments of Natural History. Among the contributors of Papers we may notice the following:-In Geology and Mineralogy-Professor Jameson, Mr Bald, Dr Fleming, Dr Macknight, M. Haidinger, Dr Adam, M. Boué, Mr George Anderson, Mr Trevelyan, Dr Hibbert, Mr Witham, Mr R. J. Hay Cunningham, Mr James Smith, and Mr Torrie. In Chemistry-Dr Thomas Thomson, and Dr Murray. In Botany-Mr Robert Brown (one of his early papers on the Natural Order Asclepiadea was read on 4th November 1809), Messrs David and George Don, Mr R. K. Greville, Dr Walker Arnott, Mr Macgillivray, Mr Marshall, Mr Francis Hamilton, Rev. Dr Scot. In Zoology and Comparative Anatomy-Mr Montague, Dr Fleming, Mr Neill, Dr Barclay, Mr Leach, Mr Thomas Brown, Mr James Wilson, Dr Traill, Dr Dewar, Mr Swainson, Mr Edmonston, Dr Knox, Mr Selby, Dr Hibbert, Dr Richardson, Mr Coldstream, Rev. David Scot, Mr William Jardine, Mr Parnell, Dr Grant, Mr Macgillivray, Dr Craigie, Mr J. Duncan, and Mr Edward Forbes. In Meteorology-Rev. Dr Scoresby. In Physical Science -Mr Stevenson, Dr Brewster, Mr Adie, and Mr Deuchar. The Society continued to hold meetings with more or less. regularity up to 1850; and I have drawn up from its records the following notices, in continuation of its published proceedings: On the 11th August 1838, the Society proposed to encourage the study of Natural History, by the offer of premiums for the best essays on certain subjects in Hydrography, Geology, Zoology, and Botany. These were subsequently advertised. The thirty-second session of the Society was opened on 24th November 1838, by Professor Jameson; and on the 15th December of that year, papers were read by Dr Traill on the Cheirotherium; and by Sir John Dalyell on a singular mode of propagation in some of the lower animals; besides communications on the Geology of Melrose and Earlston, and on Meteorology. On 12th January 1839, Professor Jameson exhibited Labrus trimaculatus and Gadus minutus, two rare fishes which had been found in the Pentland Firth; and the carcass of a large cinereous eagle, "being one of the two birds of that kind which had the boldness to attack a traveller near NewtonStewart in Galloway.' On 26th January 1839, Mr Smith of Jordanhill read observations on the elevated marine deposits in the basin of the Clyde, accompanied with remarks by Deshayes, Lyell, and Sowerby, on the shells unknown as British imbedded in them, from which it appeared that, out of twenty species, seven are at present to be found recent in the Arctic Seas, five in the Crag and Sicilian Newer Pliocene, and that the rest are peculiar to the deposit in question. Edward Forbes was proposed as a member by Professor Jameson, and his nomination was seconded by Dr Neill. He was admitted on 9th February. At the same meeting, Professor Wallace explained |