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Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh http://journals.cambridge.org/PRE Additional services for Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here I.—Opening Address by the President Professor James Geikie Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh / Volume 34 / January 1914, pp 4 - 9 DOI: 10.1017/S0370164600013213, Published online: 15 September 2014 Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0370164600013213 How to cite this article: Professor James Geikie (1914). I.—Opening Address by the President. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 34, pp 4-9 doi:10.1017/S0370164600013213 Request Permissions : Click here Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/PRE, IP address: 128.210.126.199 on 20 Jan 2015 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. I.—Opening Address by the President, Professor James Geikie, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., F.G.S., delivered at the First Ordinary Meeting for the Session, held on November 3, 1913. GENTLEMEN,—For the high honour you have done me in electing me to the Presidency of this, the premier scientific Society of Scotland, I offer you my grateful thanks. I am proud indeed that you should have deemed me not unworthy to succeed the eminent men who have heretofore occupied this chair. My complacency, however, is tempered, if not subdued, by the consciousness of my own limitations. But if I cannot, like my predecessors, add lustre to the office I hold, I can at least endeavour to devote all my energies to the performance of its duties. It is matter of sincere congratulation that our Society continues to prosper, and to keep up its reputation by the number and value of its contributions to the stock of knowledge. During the past session no fewer than 46 papers were communicated. Of these 19 dealt with chemical and physical subjects; 19 were zoological; 3 botanical; 2 geological; while pure mathematics, engineering, and anthropology were each represented by one paper. In addition to these papers, two addresses were delivered at the request of the Council—one being physiological and the other astronomical. During the session, I regret to say, our Society has sustained not a few losses—twenty-three of our fellow-members having died. Of this number, some will be long remembered by us not only for the distinction of their own careers, but for the active part they took in conducting the affairs of the Society. RAMSAY HEATLEY TRAQUAIR, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. ... Dr Traquair became a Fellow of the Society in 1874, and served many yeax's on the Council—his first term of office being from 1875 to 1878, and his last from 1904 to 1910, when he acted as Vice-President. He communicated many important papers to the Society, and was awarded the Makdougall- Brisbane and Neill Medals. Dr Traquair died on 24th November 1912. [See Obituary Notice, Proceedings, vol. xxxiii. pp. 336-341.] JOHN WILLIAM SHEPHERD, Glasgow, was elected in 1897. He died on 26th November 1912. 1913-14.] Opening Address by the President. 5 ANDREW JAMIESON, M.Inst.C.E. ... He was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1882, and died on 4th December 1912. [See Obituary Notice, Proceedings, vol. xxxiii. pp. 334, 335.] SIR GEORGE HOWARD DARWIN, K.C.B., M.A., LL.D., F.R.S., second son of the famous naturalist, was born in 1845, and died on 7th December 1912. After a brilliant career at Cambridge, he became barrister in 1874, but subsequently returned to Cambridge and devoted himself to mathematical science, and in 1883 was elected Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experi- mental Philosophy. He is the author of many important and suggestive papers, a number of which appeared in the Proceedings and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, of which Society he became a Fellow in 1879, and was the recipient of the Copley and Royal Medals. The great merits of his original researches have been recognised by many Universities at home and abroad, and by learned Academies and Institutions all the world over, who have enrolled his name among their hon. members. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of this Society in 1897. LIEUT.-COL. FREDERICK BAILEY obtained his commission in the Royal Engineers in 1859, and went to India in 1864, where he served in the Bhutan Expedition of 1864-5, for which he obtained a medal. In 1871 he was attached to the Indian forest service, in which department he remained for close on twenty years, having during that long period occupied several very important posts. So highly were his services appreciated by the Indian Government that he was eventually appointed Inspector-General of Forests. In 1890 temporary illness compelled him to return to this country. About this time the importance of Forestry as a branch of University education had been recognised by the institution of a Lecture- ship on the subject in the University of Edinburgh, and Lieut.-Col. Bailey was called upon to become first lecturer. He threw himself with charac- teristic zeal into his work, and soon gained the confidence of his students and the admiration of his colleagues. It is chiefly due to his indefatigable exertions that a degree in Forestry was eventually instituted by the University Court. Nor can it be doubted that it is to his energy and enthusiasm that the subject of Forestry now occupies so prominent a position not only in the University of Edinburgh but in Scotland generally. Lieut.-Col. Bailey also found additional outlets for his energies as an active member of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, and as Secretary of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. This latter post he occupied with conspicuous ability for many years, until the increasing work of his Lecture- 6 Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. [Sess. ship compelled him in 1903 to resign. For four years longer he retained his position at college, when, to the regret of his colleagues, failing health obliged him to retire. Lieut.-Col. Bailey was elected a Fellow of the Society in 1894, and served one term on the Council (1896-99). His death took place on 21st December 1912. JOHN M'ARTHUR, F.C.S., Sussex. ... He was elected to the Fellowship of the Society in 1888, and died on 19th December 1912. [See Obituary Notice, Proceedings, vol. xxxiii. p. 333.] ROBERT M. FERGUSON, Ph.D., L.L.D., who died on 31st December 1912, at the advanced age of 84, was elected a Fellow in 1868, and served three terms on the Council. He acted also as the representative of the Society on George Heriot's Trust. [See Obituary Notice, Proceedings, vol. xxxiii. pp. 342-345.] A. BEATSON BELL, advocate, of Kilduncan, Kingsbarns, Fife, and a former Chairman of H.M. Prison Commissioners for Scotland, died on 6th January 1913, in his 81st year. He was elected a Fellow in 1886, and served three terms on the Council. Mr Bell was all his life much interested in educational matters, having acted as a director of Edinburgh Academy, a governor of Donaldson's Hospital, and a governor of the Trust for Education in the Highlands. He held various other important positions, such as director of the Royal Institution for the Home Relief of Incurables, and director of the Royal Sick Children's Hospital. He' was also a Fellow of the Royal Scottish Society of Arts, and served as President of that Society from 1897 to 1899. GEORGE ALEXANDER GIBSON, D.SC, M.D., LL.D., F.R.C.P.E., was elected a Fellow in 1881, and served one term on the Council. He died on 18th January 1913, in his 59th year. I need not attempt to appraise Dr Gibson's position as a medical man—we know that he was a brilliant member of his profession, respected and beloved by all who knew him. It is hardly too much to say that the premature death of this distinguished physician has been mourned by the whole community, and has been felt as a great loss to this Society. SIR WILLIAM WHITE, K.C.B., F.R.S., London, was elected a Fellow in 1890. Sir William, who has been called "the father of the modern British Navy," had a most notable career. With no advantages of fortune or social position, he worked his way in the Naval service from the humble posi- tion of a shipwright apprentice to the important position of Director of 1913-14.] Opening Address by the President. 7 Naval Construction. Under his superintendence some two hundred and fifty ships of various types were added to our Navy at a cost of about one hundred millions sterling, and for the work of construction of that great fleet Sir William was ultimately responsible. He died on 27th February 1913, in the 68th year of his age. J. J. KIRK DUNCANSON, M.D., studied medicine at Edinburgh and various medical schools on the Continent. He graduated M.D. at the University of Edinburgh in 1871, was elected to the Fellowship of our Society in 1890, and died on 12th March 1913. WALTER WHITEHEAD, F.R.C.S.E., was formerly Professor in Clinical Surgery in Victoria University, Manchester; past-President of the British Medical Association; and author of many important works in surgery. He was elected a Fellow in 1881, and died on 19th August 1913. JAMES GORDON MACGREGOR, D.SC, LL.D,, F.R.S., Professor of Natural Philosophy in the University of Edinburgh, passed away very suddenly on 21st May 1913.