At the conclusion of my term of office it is a great pleasure to me to be able to congratulate the Society on the condition of its finances. This, three years since, caused some of us no little anxiety ; now, thanks to the efficient management of our Honorary Secretary, we can look forward to the future with confidence.

I obtained this summer a most beautiful variety of fluor spar, which was raised from the 145 fathom level of the Holmbush Mine. It is of a transparent azure-blue colour, and shows well marked fluorescent phenomena, though not so strongly as that of Weardale, Cumberland.

Some of the specimens are deep blue in one part and limpid like glass in another ; it was found that while the deeply coloured part was strongly fluorescent the limpid part had little or no effect upon the refrangibility of the light passed through it.

Every student of crystals is aware how frequently they fall short of the ideal perfection which theory ascribes to them. With regard to the development of the simple forms, the irregularities are most prominent on the crystals which are subject to certain laws of symmetry. In consequence of the differences of size presented on the same crystal by planes belonging to the same form, the most manifold distortions ensue, resulting at one time in the imitation of forms of a lower degree of symmetry, at another in the complete absence of symmetry. Moreover, as long as the faces constituting the distorted form remain the same, i.e. as long as the cause of the distortion is without influence on the development of the combination, so long will the angles of inclination of the circumscribing elements of the individual remain the same, and thus the degree of symmetry can be determined by measurement of the crystal notwithstanding the distortion.