Gentlemen,—I propose to address you on this occasion with reference to the following points:—

First, to recapitulate briefly the origin, the objects, and the Constitution of Societies similar to our own.

Secondly, to trace the rise and general history of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Thirdly, to consider what changes the progress of science and of society render necessary or desirable in the working of associations like ours, and how far such changes are safe and prudent.

In this paper the author maintains the proposition, that the class Tunicata may be conveniently divided into two sub-classes, viz., the Fixed or Stationary, and the Free or Locomotive, of at least nearly equal value in a zoological point of view, in opposition to the opinion commonly entertained, that the so-called Pelagic Tunicata compose a group only commensurate with the groups of the Compound, the Social and the Simple, into which the Fixed Tunicata have been divided by Milne-Edwards and others.

The telescope here referred to is the largest and best ever erected in Scotland, for exact sidereal observation; and the author having paid a visit last September to its liberal and hospitable owner, J. W. Grant, Esq., of Elchies, Morayshire, had an opportunity of trying its powers on double stars, and describes the results of the trial in his paper.

Louis Albert Necker, who died at Portree, in Skye, on the 20th November 1861, aged 76, had been for many years a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

His relation to the Royal Society, and to Scotland generally, was, however, far different from what belongs to most honorary members. As a youth, his studies had been pursued at the Edinburgh University. He had received almost his first introductions to society amongst the very best circles which the Scottish capital, in the days of perhaps its highest literary and scientific celebrity, could afford; he visited the Highlands, and even the remoter Hebrides, with an admiring enthusiasm which few native tourists have surpassed. In later life he returned with renewed interest to revisit the scenes where he spent his youth.

These notes are intended to form an appendix to the author's paper on the anatomy and classification of the Heteropoda, read before the Society last session. He finds the relationship between Firola and Firoloides even closer than he had supposed, and that, with the exception of gills in the former genus, nearly every anatomical point occurring in one, may be distinctly traced out in the other, only differing in relative characters. The author describes in detail the anatomy of Firola, illustrating his description by a drawing.

The object of the author in this paper is to prove the importance of examining, in the living and expanded state, all soft, collapsible, and contractile animals. He describes in detail the anatomy of the genus Clio, illustrating his description by a drawing. He points out the confusion that has occurred in systematic works between the species named respectively Clio borealis and Clio australis; and he describes characters by which he thinks that these two species ought to be separated from Clio caudata and erected into a new genus; which, however, he declines to designate, being averse to add new names to a list already large.

Lüneburg is the capital of the old Hanoverian duchy of the same name. It stands on the small navigable river Ilmenau, about thirty miles S.E. from Hamburg, and about 150 feet above the sea. The country around is a flat sandy heath, from which the gypseous limestone rock of the Kalkberg rises, not unlike Dumbarton Castle, to a height of 180 feet above the plain.

In the early part of this paper the author adverts to the antiquity of researches into the causal relations of health and mortality. Nevertheless, long as these have been the subject of inquiry, the literature of medical meteorology is meagre in the extreme; and in proportion to the time and labour bestowed upon the many other branches of medical science, this department may justly be regarded as having met with unmerited neglect. Reference is made, however, to the names of many eminent physicians, whose researches into the influence of weather upon the human constitution have contributed not a little to adorn the medical literature of the present century.

Having introduced the subject, Mr Chambers referred to the earliest examples of popular literature in the reign of Elizabeth; they were embelished with wood engravings, believed to be executed in Germany. Such was the origin of those very curious tracts known as “chap books,” now very rare, and much prized by bibliographic amateurs. The subjects of these books resembled the Folk-Lore of the Germans, and were the embodiment of the superstitions, fancies, and traditions of a much earlier period; the least exceptionable being the ballads of a heroic and tender kind.

After giving a sketch of the first beginnings of these studies in India, and their further prosecution in Europe, the author adverted to the relations of Sanskrit with the Greek, Latin, and Teutonic languages, and showed how this affinity established the common origin of the nations by which these languages have been spoken. He then proceeded to give an account of Indian literature, commencing with the hymns and other constituent parts of the Vedas, and then proceeding to the principal systems of Indian philosophy, of which he furnished an outline.

The author described a stage in the development of Comatula subsequent to the free stage of the larva, and anterior to that in which it acquires arms. He believed that the subject of the paper was of much interest in affording a key to the nature of certain aberrant forms of extinct Crinoidea, such as Haplocrinus, Stephanocrinus, &c., for the peculiarities of these genera were for the most part exhibited in the young Comatula, where they admitted of an easy determination as elements in the composition of the Crinoid.

Dear Professor Balfour,—In vol. xvi. of the “Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh,” I have described and given drawings of the pressure cavities which I discovered in topaz; and in vol. xxiii., just published, I have pointed out the geological relations of these cavities.

As the specimens of topaz containing them are so rare that I have found only five out of many hundreds which I have examined;— as the existence of such cavities with a polarising structure around them, proving that the topaz was in a soft or plastic state, will hardly be admitted by those who believe that the topaz was formed by aqueous deposition; —and as it is quite possible that other specimens containing such very minute cavities may never be found, even when diligently searched for, I think it right to present to the Society for preservation the five topazes in which the cavities were found.—I am, ever most truly yours.

The author having stated the circumstances which led to his discovering this bed with its fossils near the harbour at Elie, referred to a drawing of the section, and explained the position and contents of the different strata.

Specimens of the shells were exhibited, as named by Dr Otto Torrell of Lund, who had supplied important information as to their distribution. They are all, without exception, now living in the Arctic Seas. A majority of them are exclusively Arctic.

The author in this paper gives the localities of three large mines of this mineral. The first situated in the Semipalatinsk district, Western Siberia, between 47° and 50° N. Lat., and in 80° E. Long. from Greenwich, on the Kirghesian Steppe. The locality of the mine is remarkably barren, and upon digging down a few feet, the graphite is found lying in a continuous stratum which has been ascertained to extend over a space of 2100 acres. This immense deposit belongs to Messrs Samsonof and Mamontof of Sernopol, and is worked for commercial purposes.

In the former paper, read in December 1862, the author had detailed the points of interest that had been found in discussing the angles of position, distances, and magnitudes of certain double stars which he observed at Elchies with Mr Grant's fine telescope in last September; and he now treated similarly the observations of the colours of the stars then and there observed. The chief point to notice being, that in certain cases the colours undergo periodical variations; with the star “95 Herculis” in twelve years, almost exactly within the tenth part of a year, if older records can be trusted to implicitly; and such periodical change the author considered a new feature in this branch of astronomy, and one of a most important and hopeful character for observers to follow up in future.

I am indebted to one of our University students, Mr Peter Lawson, for a specimen of a star-fish, which he informed me had been found, along with many others, in a deposit of brick-clay near Dunbar. The interest of this fact was a sufficient inducement to cause me at once to visit the locality where the star-fish was obtained, and where, by the kindness of Mr France, the proprietor of the brick-works, I succeeded in obtaining good specimens of the fossil.