THE RETROSPECT OF THE YEAR. Ill 



ultimate elements and see them at their work in building 

 up and sustaining their structure. The study of the ani- 

 mal in the egg gives us a view into nature's workshop, 

 where she is busy transforming the elements of earth into 

 living organisms. The comparison of the old and the 

 new, one represented by the forms of to-day, the other 

 by those that have long since passed from our world, helps, 

 by the light of the modern theory of evolution, to trace 

 the ancestry of the forms of animal life on this earth. 



Monday, Feb. 16, 1891. — Sidney Perley, Esq., spoke 

 on " The Computation of Time." The lecturer defined the 

 meaning of time, spoke of the early chronology of the 

 Bible, the natural and artificial divisions of time of the 

 Hebrew, Roman and Julian calendars (the last having 

 been the foundation of ours) , the origin of Leap year, also 

 the change in our calendar, in 1752, when eleven days 

 were dropped and the circumstances which led to it ; he 

 mentioned the seasons, months, weeks and days into which 

 time is divided, and the artificial means of measuring time 

 by the different instruments such as clepsydras, sun-dials, 

 hour-glasses, clocks, watches, etc. 



Mr. Perley exhibited Governor Endicott'ssun-dial, an old 

 pulpit, and two hour-glasses, all from the Institute cabi- 

 nets, with several quaint old almanacs. He concluded by 

 a description of local time, and an account of the changes 

 made in 1883 from local to standard time. 



Monday, Feb. 23, 1891.— Mr. Arthur M. Mo wry read 

 an interesting paper on "How English Colonies in America 

 acquired their Government." He spoke of the political 

 history of the English people down to the time of the first 

 government formed in America which was the Virginia 

 Company and the Charter granted them by King James in 



