L ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



We must not begin by doubting, but by doing, and then sifting. A 

 thousand doubters would not make a Lister, a Pasteur, or a Koch. 

 Aristotle says, if you doubt you must doubt well, but to doubt well, 

 you must first work well. I feel confident that one of the highest 

 aspirations of this Society, is that its observations, from year to year, 

 may fructify and extend into all lands, and the reciprocity of feeling 

 and action aroused, strengthen the scientific and literary ties of the 

 world. In this prospective develo^^ment we must all endeavour to assist. 



The flame of science must burn within as a vestal fire. Drudgery 

 and long waiting for opportunity, are truly discouraging, but the 

 Pivine Spark will not disappear, while the investigator is true and 

 honourable, and keeping such in view for pure purposes. As a rule 

 lecturers are teachers in a sense and their work lives after them. 



Voltaire says of Virgil, that he was Homer's greatest achievement. 

 Dante was Virgil's greatest light. In science we find precisely the 

 same. The man passes away, but his work remains after him, and so 

 in the records of our Society, we trust an influence will be exercised 

 such as will redound to the credit of this Association. 



Our annual meetings present a feature of great interest in the 

 reports of the Allied Scientific Societies throughout the Dominion. It 

 is needless to say how welcome are the representatives, and how much 

 we value their taking part in our discussions, and thus stimulating, in 

 a most encouraging manner, the interchange of thought, which widens 

 the area of scientific research. 



The subject which I have chosen for the present occasion is 

 '■ Brain Power and How to Preserve It." In the days of the Ancient 

 Greeks, the composition of the human body was in a measure defined 

 by Aristotle, as being composed of parts, differing from each other 

 in form, consistency, colour and texture. In these diversified parts, 

 brain and nerve tissues, are exceedingly important factors. Not, how- 

 ever, until the concluding years of the last century, was an impetus 

 given to anatomical research by the Hunters of England, the Meckels 

 cf Germany, as well as Cuvier and St. Hilaire of France, by whose un- 

 tiring researches, the minute structure of animal tissues was placed on 

 a more defined and uniform basis. In the past century, great light was 

 thrown on the entire subject of general anatomy by Xavier Bichat, one 

 of the most accurate observers in all France in the Napoleonic Era. 

 The most remarkable advance, however, Avas made in the third decen- 

 nium of the past century, by improving the methods of examining 

 minute objects, by compound lenses. For more than a half a century, 

 jnicroscopes have extended the domain of biological science, as to bring 

 within our comprehension, a clearly defined basis of human structure, 

 such as could not fail to convey a tolerably correct idea of functional 



