We are all well at present. This is a time when a great many strangers are here at the wells. Our houses here are mostly let to Lodgers. I intend to buy a Bridge of Allan paper on Saturday to send to you, in which you will see that there are a great deal of people here at present. This is our busiest time in the year to make up our rents. My wife is very much toiled in cooking for them. You have here the picture of the house where the mineral water is drunk, also of the baths for invalids, a much frequented place. They have always a great many lodgers. They are making a great addition to the bath house this season, and when completed it will be a great building and will contain a great many Lodgers itself, which may be against other peoples houses letting but the place is always increasing. We have new houses getting up every year. It vexes me often to think that I might have had a house of my own when I have it not, but have to pay a heavy rent, but I must not repine. My days here cannot be long now, but I may be thankful that at present I am so well, for a short time ago I was confined to my bed. The rest of my family are just about the same way as when I wrote last.

... zeal and ability in experimental investigations in the Physical Laboratory.

... the Mechanical Laboratory in the Technical Institute has been opened, and the students in my department have derived great advantage thereby: the additional space was much needed, and the propriety of the development of our laboratory work on the mechanical side of natural philosophy seems proved by the great interest taken by my students in this special branch of the work. The practical examinations in natural philosophy for the degree of B.Sc. at St Andrews largely consists of mechanics, and this gives us additional reason for appreciating the extension. The new lecture room has also proved of the greatest service. ... After five years' loyal service my friend Mr Capstick left us for Cambridge. He was succeeded by Mr John McCowan, whose attainments as a mathematical physicist have been of great value to my department.

I have much pleasure in reporting that my assistant Mr John McCowan has read and published three original papers during the past session; two of them dealing with Applied Mathematics are concerned with important problems on the conduction of heat in electrically heated conductors, and on the form of the solitary wave in water of finite depth.

Boussinesq (1877) was responsible for the most frequently quoted profile of a wave. Interestingly, this followed from a first approximation to the effects of surface curvature on the hydraulic pressure assumption for long waves. McCowan applied Stokes's notion for breaking to obtain the maximum relative height to breadth of 0.78.

In the evening an earnest class of four students took Senior Mathematics under Mr McCowan; while the Laboratory Class absorbed both his energies and mine on Wednesday evenings as usual. ... I have pleasure in reporting that Mr J McCowan, Assistant Lecturer and Demonstrator in my Department, has received the degree of D.Sc. under the new regulations, from the University of Glasgow, on presenting as credentials his original papers on wave motion and on heat conduction, to which I directed your attention last year.

J McCowan of University College at Dundee discussed this topic [waves] more fully and arrived at exact and complete solutions for certain cases. ... methods of approximation were given by Lord Rayleigh and John McCowan.

I need hardly add that I have been loyally supported by Dr McCowan, whose cooperation and advice I am always glad to receive.

Dr McCowan was prevented by illness from discharging his duties which were in consequence taken up by Mr Hugh Mitchell, B.Sc. of Edinburgh.

The early part of the session was marked by the sudden death of Dr McCowan, who had obtained leave of absence on account of ill-health. The College has lost one who was not only an admirable teacher, but also singularly gifted as a scholar, both as regards his erudition and his originality. his place has been taken by a former student in the Department, Mr R Norrie. It will be remembered that during the previous session the unexpected failure of Dr McCowan's health caused considerable inconvenience to the Departments of Mathematics and Physics. At the beginning of the present session we were still more unfortunate in the former department, for until the middle of November it was impossible to find a substitute.