58 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Feb. 



Bishops' College, Lennoxville ; since the gases emitted in the per- 

 formance of the experiments might not tend to improve the venti- 

 lation of the room. Prof. Miles then spoke as follows : 



" Mr. President, it has afforded me great pleasure to receive 

 an invitation to join in this gathering of the members, friends, and 

 visitors of the Natural History Society. 



" As one of its numerous guests this evening, I beg to express my 

 sincere thanks for the privilege of participating in a treat so richly 

 and so variously furnished, — one which, while it appeals to the un- 

 derstanding, delights the imagination and the senses. But in en- 

 deavoring to respond, at a brief notice, to a request that I should 

 address you, I should begin, if the plea were good for anything, 

 or if it were judged to be in good taste, by asking you to remem- 

 ber how formidable a thing to some is the prospect of being re- 

 quired to make a speech. In place of that, however, I find it more 

 natural, as it is doubtless more becoming, to obey the stimulus aris- 

 ing from a hearty sense of sympathy as regards the objects of the 

 Natural History Society — to look to the feelings which must ani- 

 mate all who are assembled here to-night — cultivators, lovers, and 

 patrons of science — gathered together here socially for the par- 

 pose of testifying an appreciation of those objects — for the purpose, 

 in fact, of testifying respect for science, and an admiration of the 

 useful and beautiful arts and improvements in art which science 

 is continually furnishing. 



" To these considerations I think, sir, I cannot be in error, when 

 I add the mention of another motive in influencing us all wha 

 have come to participate in this evening's recreation ; namely, a 

 desire to express our recognition of those services which have ren- 

 dered the Natural History Society what it is — whetherof those who 

 have given without stint, time, labor, and skill to its advancement, 

 or of those other promoters who have, in various ways, contributed 

 to the same end, by donations of money, of books, of works of art, 

 and of specimens for the enrichment of the Society's collections. 



" Encouraged by reflections of this kind calculated to loosen the 

 tongue, and to place even an unpractised speaker at his ease, I am 

 thankful for the opportunity of expressing my own gratification at 

 what I see and hear to-night, and should rejoice indeed if, it may 

 be at a fitting moment, I could be so fortunate as to say only a 

 few useful words in furtherance of a cause we all desire to promote. 



*' There are established here societies — quite a goodly number of 



