The Edinburgh Geologist owes its existance to Helena Butler, a graduate of Edinburgh University who, in the late 1970s, decided that the Society needed a publication that would be of interest to the non-prefessional Fellows. The first issue was published in March 1977 under her editorship and, in 1979, the editorial team expanded to include Andrew McMillan. Helena and Andrew continued in that rôle until 1985, a magnificent (and as yet unbeaten) run of eight years during which they published no less than seventeen issues.

They had made it look far too easy! The next few editorial teams found it much more difficult to bring out the magazine out on such a regular basis and The Edinburgh Geologist entered turbulent times. It is difficult to keep chasing copy and still to meet the deadlines expected by Council. It requires time and tenacity, together with a thick skin (Diplodocus would have made a really good Editor) and a complete inability to understand the word ënoí. Maybe I have been lucky, but I am pleased to say that the magazine is now back on to a regular twice-yearly schedule.

But this anniversary year sees a significant change. As well as the printed version, we are now publishing on the Web. It would be a task of mammoth proportions to publish all the back issues, but I have made a start. All the contents pages are on the Web, a job made much easier by the sterling work of David and Fiona McAdam, who did this for the old web site. There are also a few packets of articles, such as Bill Bairdís Strange Earth and the Whatís in a Name? series, plus a few other goodies. My intention is to publish the current edition after it appears in print and then any articles from back issues as they are requested.

I was going to write that the magazine will always be available in the printed form first, but maybe I should not use the word 'always'. Who knows what the future will bring? In 1977, the magazine was a xeroxed, typed affair; with advancing technology, it became word-processed and eventually desk-top-published. This edition will be the first to be sent direct from disk to press. And it is appearing on the Web. All those changes amount to an enormous advance and I, for one, cannot foresee what the next quarter-century will bring. Web-publishing could mean that regular production of Spring and Autumn issues might eventually become a thing of the past.

It would be a shame in a way. Some readers tell me that they like to hear the thud when The Edinburgh Geologist arrives through the letterbox. It would be the same kind of advance that has brought us strawberries all year round... giving us all the less to look forward to!

As part of the silver anniversary, Brian Jackson has written a specially commissioned article on silver minerals. Brian describes the history of the use of silver and its occurrence worldwide and in Scotland. I was amazed to read that the Ancients were extracting silver from lead ore 7000 years ago. With my love of words, I was also delighted to see that the article explains the origin of the mineral name uchucchacuaite (and how to pronounce it).

I also have a competition for you. Those of you with a complete set of The Edinburgh Geologist will find this easier than those without, but there are plenty of other ways of answering many of the questions. There is a prize for the first all-correct answer opened after the copy date for the Autumn 2002 issue, in which the answers will be given and the winner announced. In the event of no all-correct entries, then.the most complete solution will receive the prize. This is the splendid new publication Minerals of Scotland by Alec Livingston.

Coincidentally, this year sees the twenty-fifth anniversary of the opening of Murchison House. We mark this by an article by Radvan Horny on Roderick Murchisonís visit to Bohemia in 1862. This is a translation of an article by Antonin Fric in the Czech journal 'Ziva' published in 1863. Ziva is the Czech name of the pre-christian Slavonic goddess of living organisms.

Of course, the year 2002 holds a more significant anniversary than that of twenty-five years of The Edinburgh Geologist or Murchison House, and that is the bicentenary of the birth of Hugh Miller. To celebrate this, we have an article by Mike Taylor on this enigmatic man. Mike looks at what geology meant to the people of that time, scientists and churchmen alike... and Hugh Miller was both of these and more, as you will read.

With all this fuss over Hugh Miller and Roderick Murchison, it would be a shame if James Hutton didn't get a look in as well. To right this wrong, Norman Butcher has written a short piece on the Hutton Memorial Garden at St John's Hill, Edinburgh, which was opened at the end of last year.

Throughout the history of this publication, Bill Baird has been resposible for publishing seventeen articles in a series Strange Earth. The last of these was published in 1996 but, as part of the silver celebration, he has agreed to write a special Strange Earth No. 18, where he tells us of iridescent fossils thrown up by volcanoes in Wiltshire (if New Scientist is to be believed).

In the Whatís in a Name? article, David Jones looks at geological features and  mineral workings around Loch Tay and shows how these have been responsible for many of the Gaelic place names there. David has drawn my attention to an article in the last issue of The Edinburgh Geologist, where environmental geology was defined as including 'the preservation of human health and safety' and suggests that Scotland's first environmental geologist practiced, if unwittingly, in the Loch Tay area in 1342. There are also a couple letters referring to the Red Rocks and Agassiz articles that appeared in Autumn 2001. Thanks to Ian Winterflood and Alyn Jones for these.

I have a further wine for my Geo-vineyards, thanks to Cliff Porteous. I wish that I could publish the label in colour, because it is very bright indeed... but colour is, I am afraid, limited to the front cover in this issue. You will, of course, be able to see it in its full splendour when the magazine is published on the Web. Another advantage of technological advance, I suppose.
Thanks to Averil Hope Smith for sending in a contribution for Poetís Corner. Though this is actually a song, it is in French, which makes a first! It dates back to the 1912 meeting of the British Association in Dundee and was sent to her by a friend in the Inverness Field Club.

Angela's Rocksword Puzzle No 7 brings the edition to a close, though, as this is a Spring issue, the Proceedings for last year are appended. I should like to thank David Land for producing copy for the Proceedings in the years during which I have been Editor. It has made my job so much easier!

The copy date for the Autumn 2002 issue is 31st August. Several articles are promised but I am always grateful to accept more... as you all know so well.