PROCEEDINGS FOR 1913 XIII 



Natural Philosophy in McGill University, Montreal. The greater part 

 of his life was spent in the work of this chair, though the expansion of 

 the university in later years led to the institution of the department of 

 Experimental Physics, and he was thus enabled to devote his energy 

 more entirely to Pure Mathematics. In addition to his professorship 

 he occupied for many years the position of Dean in the Faculty of Arts 

 and Vice-principal of the University. In these offices the methodical 

 exactness of his mathematical training rendered his services invaluable 

 to his colleagues. 



But his influence upon the progress of science in Canada was not 

 limited to his professional class-room. Nominated among the original 

 Fellows of The Royal Society, he threw himself into its work with ardent 

 enthusiasm, and no man laboured more zealously for its success. In 

 1883 he became president of his own Section, and in 1905 he was honoured 

 with the presidency of the Societ)^ itself. His exertions also must be 

 credited, in no small measure, with the movement which led to the in- 

 vitation to Canada of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science. In his presidential address he gives a modest account of the 

 service he rendered in bringing about especially the meetings in Toronto 

 and Winnipeg. His intercourse with the great scientific workers whom 

 the Association brought to Canada at its three meetings formed perhaps 

 the most enjoyable episodes of his life. 



The first of these meetings — the Montreal meeting in 1884 — is 

 associated with another service of Dr. Johnson in the promotion of 

 scientific research in Canada, a service which has taken a permanent 

 shape of great value to the mercantile as well as the intellectual interests 

 of the Dominion. To the courtesy of Dr. W. Bell Dawson, Engineer in 

 Chief of the Tidal Survey, I am indebted for the information that the 

 subject of his department was first brought up at the Montreal meeting 

 of the British Association, when Dr. Johnson was appointed chairman 

 of a committee deputed to press the subject on the attention of the 

 Government. As a result the Minister of Marine brought the question 

 before Parliament during several successive sessions, till in 1890 some 

 preliminary investigations were undertaken, and in 1893 the Survey 

 of Tides and Currents became definitely organized. (See First Report on 

 the Survey of Tides and Currents in Canadian Waters, 1894; reprinted 

 1906). 



It is but due to Dr. Johnson to add that his devotion to the mathe- 

 matical sciences as his own special field of work did not induce him to 

 favour any narrow ideal of intellectual life. In educational discipline, 

 before any specialisation of study, he insisted on a broad foundation 

 being laid for intellectual power and intellectual sympathj' by the 

 variety of culture which the Faculty of Arts represents. (See his brochure 



