Sir Alexander Grant said:—

Gentlemen,—We cannot pass to the proceedings of this evening without some reference to the calamity which has befallen the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and under the sorrowful impression of which we now meet—the sudden death of our honoured and well-beloved President.

We knew, alas! gentlemen, that his health had been failing of late, and that when, only six months ago, he first took his seat as President of this Society, his vigour was impaired, at all events for the time.