95 



President's Address, delivered at the Annual Meeting, 

 July 24th, 1868. By E. Durham. 



Gentlemen, — 



My year of office as your President has now come to an 

 end. 



It is true, you have done me the honour to elect me your Presi- 

 dent for the ensuing year. It is also true, that I fully appreciate 

 the high compliment you have been so good as to pay me, and that 

 I hope to have the pleasure of again taking this chair at your next 

 meeting. None the less, this evening I retire from office : and so, 

 in accordance with a custom I would gladly abolish, but which I 

 am bound to adopt, I rise to offer you a few remarks. 



I freely confess I feel considerable difficulty in entering upon the 

 task before me. By my position I am shut out from all other than 

 general topics ; and the remarks I address to you must be more or 

 less general in character. But general remarks upon general 

 topics do not often possess any particular interest. It is some- 

 times as hard to listen to such remarks patiently, as it is always 

 hard to utter them pleasantly. I trust, however, to your kind con- 

 sideration and indidgence. 



In my present difficulty as to the subject matter of my address, 

 precedent affords me but little aid. 



The substance of Presidential addresses to Scientific Societies, so 

 far as I know, may, as a rule, be arranged under three heads : 

 first, we have obituary notices of members deceased during the 

 past year ; next, allusions to new instruments, or other aids to re- 

 search ; and lastly, an epitome of recent and important advances in 

 the particular branch of science especially cultivated. 



Now, fortunately or imfortunately, as the case may be, it happens 

 that there is little for me to say on the present occasion that can 

 fairly be discussed under any one of these heads of discourse. 



In the first place, it is true that during the past year two or three 

 members have been lost to us by death. We regret most sincerely 

 our loss. "We sympathise with those — relatives and friends — 

 who have been bereaved, and who still mournfully feel their greater 

 loss. We trust our expressions of sympathy will be accepted. 



