THE 



CANADIAN NATURALIST 



AND 



^uartetty journal of ^mixtt 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



The twenty-ninth meeting of this Association met at Boston, 

 Mass., on the 25th of August, under the Presidency of Professor 

 Lewis H. Morgan, of Rochester N. Y. It was probably the 

 largest and in many respects the most successful ever held, 

 the membership reaching nearly to a thousand, and the city of 

 Boston, with the educational and other institutions within and 

 near it, having made most liberal promises for the comfort and 

 entertainment of the members. 



The Association is divided into two sections, namely : 



A. — Mathematics, Astronomy, Chemistry and Mineralogy. 



B. — Geology, Zoology, Botany and Anthropology. 



These, again, arc subdivided, and the late meetings have 

 embraced subsections of Chemistry, Microscopy, Biology and 

 Anthropology. The last though a new department was one of 

 the most popular and energetic, if it may be judged by the 

 crowded audiencs and earnest discussions. The other sections 

 were characterised rather by solid papers than by lively discus- 

 sions. A detailed account of all that was done and said would 

 far exceed the limits of this journal, but wc propose to give a 

 few extracts from or abstracts of some of the more important 

 addresses and papers presented during the meeting. 



Address of^Professor George F. Barker, thb retiring 

 President of the Association. 



Professor Barker's able address was upon the all absorbing 

 topic of •' Life," and was entitled " Some Modern Aspects of 



Vol. IX. T No. 7. 



