3 8 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



seeking to promote — the era of universal brotherhood, of " peace 

 on earth and good will toward men." 



Some of the impressions of an American member attending this 

 meeting, as to its varied aspects — scientific, political, and social — 

 may be briefly presented in this article, which is intended less as a 

 record of papers and proceedings than as a series of general notes. 



Compared with the annual meetings of our own association, one 

 fact attracts notice at once, as it did also at the American meeting 

 in Toronto in 1889, to wit, the official recognition of such a gath- 

 ering by the city and the provincial authorities, and the granting of 

 liberal appropriations for the entertainment of the scientific visitors. 

 In this case sums estimated at over twenty-five thousand dollars were 

 apj3ropriated, partly by the Dominion Government, partly by the 

 Province of Ontario, and partly by the city, aside from private 

 contributions and entertainments. Our association relies entirely 

 upon the latter source; and its local committees in each place of 

 meeting appeal wholly to wealthy and public-spirited citizens to de- 

 fray the expenses of the occasion. Here comes to view one point of 

 difference between our methods and those of a country equally free 

 indeed, but in which there abides a slight flavor of that " paternal- 

 ism " so jealously dreaded among our people. 



It goes without saying, however, that in consequence of this 

 liberal provision the meeting was brilliantly successful from a social 

 point of view, the public gatherings and the viceregal reception by 

 the Governor-General and his wife, Lady Aberdeen, being social 

 functions of a very striking character. The scene at the great recep- 

 tion in the Parliament House was one never to be forgotten by 

 those who witnessed it. The long line of invited guests moved slowly 

 through the crowded hall, passing between statuelike guards, in 

 scarlet uniforms or picturesque Highland plaids, to the low dais, 

 where stood Lord and Lady Aberdeen, with Sir John Evans, presi- 

 dent of the association, Lord Lister, the ex-president, Lord Kelvin, 

 the greatest of living physicists, and a number of provincial and 

 city officials. The spectacle was both brilliant and impressive, and 

 illustrated a phase of life to which we Americans are strangers — 

 the recognition of intellectual eminence with all the formal honors 

 that official station and social rank can bestow. 



At the opening meeting, on the first evening, Wednesday, Au- 

 gust 18th, the spacious Massey Hall, in the heart of the city, was 

 thronged. All around its horseshoe-shaped gallery were hung pen- 

 nants, bearing the coats-of-arms of the past presidents of the associa- 

 tion — an array of great names in the history of science. Herschel, 

 Playfair, Tyndall, Huxley, Siemens, Lubbock, Rayleigh, among the 

 great students and discoverers; the Prince Consort, Argyle, Salis- 



