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Opening Address, Session 1870–71
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2014
Extract
Gentlemen, Fellowsof the Royal Society of Edinburgh,—In compliance with a special request of the Council, I come before you this evening to deliver the Address usually given at the opening of our Winter Session.
This practice of annually taking stock to ascertain what business we are doing, and how we are doing it, seems to me very right and expedient. The whole Society is thus made aware whether it is retrograding or advancing,—whether it is or is not, carrying out the objects of its institution.
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References
page 251 note * I state this, on the authority of the Editor of the Edinburgh Medical Journal for Nov. 1870, p. 441.
page 253 note * Ed. Med. Journal for Nov. 1870. p. 473.
page 254 note * In the speech which he made on receiving the Freedom of the City, he remarked that—“When such a simple operation as amputation of the forearm is performed upon a poor man in the country, and in his own cottage home, only about one in 180 dies. But the statistics of our large metropolitan hospitals disclose the stern and terrible truth, that if these men had been inmates of their great wards, thirty of them, or about one in six, would have perished; a fact, among many others, which calls earnestly and strongly for some great reform in our large hospitals, if these institutions are to maintain their ancient character as the homes of charity and beneficence.” These statistics applied to the amputation of the arm. He gathered similar statistics from the hospitals, and from country practitioners, in regard to amputations of the leg, which showed that these amputations in like manner were always more successful in the country than in town hospitals, notwithstanding the greater skill of town surgeons; and he deduced the following conclusions:— “1st. That about three times as many patients die after limb amputations in our large hospitals, as die from the same operations in private and country practice. 2d. That to reduce the death-rate from operations in our surgical hospitals, we should strive to assimilate their form and arrangements to the condition of patients in private and country practice.”
page 256 note * Dr Turnbull of Coldstream. He has allowed me to quote from his letter.
page 257 note * The subject of lecture was Hospital Reform.
page 264 note * As examples, see Simpson's paper on “The Cat-stane; Is it not the Tombstone of the Grandfather of Hengist and Horsa?” Also to his paper “On Ancient Sculpturings of Cups and Concentric Rings in Scotland.”
page 266 note * Medical Times and Gazette, 14th May 1870.
page 285 note * The list here referred to will be found in an address delivered by Sir Walter Elliot to the Botanical Society of Edinburgh on 10th November 1870; and is to be printed in that Society's Transactions for 1870–71.
page 287 note * Professor Faure of Geneva has had the kindness to send to me several of the Maps, Schedules, and Reports, showing the progress made by the different societies aiding in this investigation.
page 293 note * I see from this year's Education Report, that in the parochial schools, the number learning these languages is 2500.
page 294 note * Since this address was delivered, I see (Nature, Dec. 22, 1870) that an address has been presented by the President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, supported by the office-bearers and an influential deputation, comprehending Sir Charles Lyell, Sir John Lubbock, Dr Lyon Playfair, and Mr Francis Galton,—to the Vice-President of the Privy Council Committee on Education, pointing out the expediency of authorising, in the new national elementary schools, systematic instruction in elementary science, so as to create a taste among the pupils, whereby they may be induced to follow out scientific studies in the more advanced schools.
page 299 note * The following appropriations, under the head of Astronomy and Meteorology, were made by Congress, as given in “Nature,”; Jan. 26, 1871:—
Observations of Eclipse, Dec. 1870, under Coast Survey, 29,000 dols.
In the same Congress there were additional appropriations to the amount of no less than 1,377,766 dollars, for the support of Museums, Botanic Gardens, Mining Statistics, Polar Explorations, Surveys, and other objects of a scientific nature. These appropriations, be it observed, were by the Federal Government. Similar appropriations, but larger altogether in amount, are made by the different States in aid of their own societies.
page 301 note * In Dublin there are six societies, two of which are for the encouragement of the fine arts, particularly painting, which receive about L.13,000 yearly, to enable them to carry out their special objects and to keep their buildings in repair. (See Report of Royal Commissioners on Aid given to Irish Societies, presented to Parliament in 1869.)
page 301 note † The Royal Society of Edinburgh has, since the year 1836, received from the Exchequer a yearly sum of L.300 to enable them to pay rent, taxes, and maintenance of the apartments they occupy. The rent charged by Government for these apartments is L.260. The Society of Antiquaries receives L.300, which is all applied to pay the officers who take charge of the Museum, and the necessary repairs and cleaning. The Museum belongs to the Government.
page 305 note * See an account of these experiments in the “Journal of the Scottish Meterological Society” for January 1869.
page 305 note † The test papers for ozone indications are affected by the varying force of wind, as also by the varying humidity of the atmosphere, insomuch that at several Observatories ozone observations have been discontinued. When I was at Rome last winter, Padre Secchi told me he had ceased to take notice of ozone for these reasons, not having been able to devise any method for eliminating the effects of wind and moisture. The object of the experiments in the Edinburgh Botanic Garden was to construct an apparatus which should allow only dry air to reach the test papers, and in certain quantities.
page 306 note * Lieutenant-Colonel Strange, an influential member of the British Association, sends a letter to “Nature,” Nov. 3, 1870, in which he adverts to Professor Balfour Stewart's idea of enlarging the grant of L.1000 administered by the Royal Society of London, and expresses cordial concurrence.