PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 3 
find that we have much to unlearn as well as to learn, it is amatter of no little importance, 
that we should do all we can to prevent errors coming in at the fountain head, that is in 
the original papers in which new ideas are promulgated ; and we should therefore not only 
endeavour to make the papers which we ourselves write as free as possible from errors, 
but, by discussing those which are brought before us, endeavour, if we can, to detect and 
have corrected, before publication, the defects in such papers as may have been written 
by others. 
Some of the papers which have been laid before us at the meetings during the past 
four years have been fairly well discussed ; it would, however, it seems to me, be a great 
benefit to the Society were the discussions still more frequent and more freely participated 
in. Perhaps the ignorance which has generally prevailed heretofore, as to the nature of 
the papers to be read, by preventing the members present from giving any prior consi- 
deration to the subject matter of the paper, may have greatly hindered discussion, An 
effort has been made this year to overcome this difficulty, by printing a short account of 
the contents of some of the papers, and it is to be hoped that, in future, members will 
always endeavour to prepare, when possible, such a short abstract of their papers as will 
give a fair idea of their contents. There is also another way in which members may aid 
in this matter. It is to be assumed that any criticism of a paper is made with the object 
of bringing out the truth, and of preventing errors from appearing in our printed volume ; 
and that any questions that may be asked, are either for the purpose of further elucidating 
some point which is obscure in the paper, or from the desire of the member asking the 
question to obtain further information on a point on which he happens to be ignorant. 
In either case, the member presenting the paper should do his best to elucidate the point ; 
if he has been in error, it is for his own credit that the paper should not be printed with 
errors in it, and if there is no error, the question or criticism may show that some point 
has not been very plainly brought out, and the author may see that, by a slight verbal 
alteration, his meaning may be made clearer. But even if there is no error and no real 
want of clearness in the paper, but the criticism has been made through false reasoning 
of a member who has started or taken part in the discussion, the member presenting the 
paper having presumably the subject at his fingers’ ends, should be able to point out at 
what point the criticism fails, and the consideration due from one member of this Society 
to another should make him willing to do this, and to do it courteously, even though his 
superior knowledge of the subject shews him that the objections which are raised are 
frivolous or absurd. I cannot but hope that the discussions will, in the future, prove to 
be perhaps the most instructive and interesting feature in our meetings, as I have found 
them at meetings of some other societies. 
Let us turn now to the next point which I mentioned as among the principal objects 
in the foundation of the Society, viz., the publication in Canada of valuable scientific 
papers. On this point we have reason to congratulate ourselves on success. We have 
had presented to us and published in our Transactions, papers on a variety of subjects, 
mathemical, chemical and engineering, in numbers satisfactory, considering the small 
number of members, and of quality decidedly high. Most of these papers have been con- 
tributed by members of the Society. It is to be regretted that a larger number of papers 
have not been contributed by outsiders, and we should all endeavour to get scientific 
workers with whom we may be acquainted to occasionally present papers, as we should 
