XXXII ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
22. DECEASE oF MEMBERS. 
_ Since we met in this hall twelve months ago we have had to mourn 
the loss of two eminent Fellows, the Honourable Mr. Marchand and Dr. 
G. M. Dawson, both of whom held the office of President of the Royal 
Society of Canada in 1897 and 1893 respectively. The Council express 
the hope that the Sections to which they belonged will select some suit- 
able person to review at some length their lives of usefulness, especially 
in connection with this body; and all that we shall attempt in this brief 
sketch is to recall their memory and pay a humble tribute to their many 
admirable qualities. 
The Hon. Mr. Marchand. 
Dr. Marchand devoted successfully his best energies to the politics 
of his native province, of which he died Prime Minister. One some- 
times thinks, now that he has gone, that the worry and pressure of his. 
political hfe had much to do with shortening the years of a man whose 
temperament was in some respects incompatible with the wearying con- 
ditions of party conflict and with the incessant strain on the mind and 
energy of a leader and administrator. The few essays he made in lit- 
erature showed that he possessed the literary instinct, and perhaps, had 
he not been carried away by the excitement and glamour of a political 
career, French Canada would have had from his pen more notable evi- 
dence of his intellectual quality and he would have been longer spared 
to his country. Be that as it may, his colleagues in the Royal Society 
and his many friends everywhere in Canada will always have a most. 
pleasing recollection of his genial and unselfish disposition. 
Dr. George Mercer Dawson. 
Like Dr. Marchand, Dr. Dawson was a man possessed of many 
charms of character which endeared him to all his companions and 
friends. In science he had won many honours, and it is most regret- 
table that Canada should have so soon lost one from whom she had 
reason to expect even more useful and enduring achievements in the. 
future. 
Dr. Dawson’s name will be always remembered as that of an inde- 
fatigable worker in geology, geography and ethnology. Possessing a 
fine logical faculty, a great capacity for research, a remarkable power 
for industry, and a rare ability to master details and give confidence in 
his conclusions, he had deservedly won the high position among the- 
scientific men of the present day. No physical weakness ever kept him 
