IV THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



Sir James Grant was a charter member, and a Past President of 

 the Society. Dr. Hewitt was elected in 1913, and, in the following 

 year, was made Treasurer, a position which he held until his death. 



The biographical sketch of Sir James Grant was prepared by 

 Professor E. E. Prince, and that of Dr. Hewitt by the Honorary 

 Secretary. 



SIR JAMES GRANT, K.C.M.G., M.D. 



The death of Sir James Grant, on February 5, 1920, leaves in the 

 ranks of The Royal Society of Canada a very marked vacancy. For 

 nearly forty years he filled a place of peculiar distinction in the Society, 

 and for close on seventy years was prominent in the public life of the 

 Dominion. During this long period — nearly three-quarters of a 

 century — there were few important occasions in which he did not take 

 part. He was one of the few remaining original Fellows of The Royal 

 Society who were present at the impressive inaugural meeting on 

 May 25, 1882, in the Senate Chamber, when the Duke of Argyll (then 

 Marquis of Lome and Governor-General) and Her Royal Highness 

 the Princess Louise were present as sponsors. He was the last of the 

 original officers of The Royal Society, being the Society's first honorary 

 treasurer, and holding the office for some years. At the first meeting 

 of the Section of Geological and Biological Sciences he presented a short 

 paper on the fragment of a seal's skeleton found in the glacial clay 

 bed nine miles below Ottawa, and he never failed to attend and take 

 part in the Section's proceedings to the last. No Fellow was more 

 faithful in his attendance, and his striking appearance, courtly presence 

 and dignity, made him conspicuous at the meetings, while he was a 

 ready and eloquent speaker, and usually participated in the discussions. 

 To young scientific workers he was always ready to give encourage- 

 ment; but his most prominent characteristic was his unfailing op- 

 timism and his boundless faith in the future of the Dominion. Early 

 in his career he had been impressed with the resources and vast 

 possibilities of Canada's North-West Territories, then remote and 

 little appreciated. He was quite a youth, a medical student indeed 

 at McGill (1849-50), when he met, under the roof of the Hon. Allen 

 Macdonald, ex-chief factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, Sir George 

 Simpson, Governor of the Company, and a number of assembled 

 high officials serving under that distinguished chief, and listened to 

 their views as to the practically unknown regions of the north. This 

 early experience gave him a theme upon which he was eager to speak 

 whenever the opportunity offered. It was appropriate, therefore, 

 that when he was Member of Parliament for the County of Russell, 



