PROCEEDINGS FOE 1887. XXIH 



Wcant, that might or raight not be supplied, but an absolute necessity for the successful prosecution 

 of our work, if it were to be of national use, and essential for the purpose of making its results avail- 

 able to the people, in a couiiti-y of material i-esources and industrial and commercial capabilities so 

 vast, and in which so many other requirements of civilisation were being rapidly supplied. 



On the occasion of our assembling together at the formation of the Societj^, our first president, 

 Sir William Dawson, enumerated the several objects set before us, and, in view of our cii-cumstances 

 and surroundings, discussed the possibilities and probabilities of their attainment. The extent to 

 which we might hope for success, and the diiections in which it was to be looked for, were then so 

 clearly set forth as to give at once an impulse to willing laborers and indicate promising fields for 

 exertion. At our second meeting, the thoughtful paper read by Dr. Todd, on the Eclations of the 

 Eoyal Society to the State, opened out other functions of public utility, which, as in case ot the Eoyal 

 Societies of London and New South Wales, our own might be called to perfoi-m when occasion 

 required. 



We have so far worked veiy much upon the lines originally laid down, and, in successive years, 

 it has been possible readily to gauge our progress and fix our position. Our retrospect for the past 

 year is not less gratifying than that of its piedecessors. The general business requiring consideration 

 of the Council, as well as that of special character pertaining to Sections, has not been less in amount 

 or of less consequence than heretofore, while the programme of literary and scieatitic papers 

 continues to increase, — in one or two Sections, indeed, to an extent that may be somewhat trj'ing to 

 the Publication Committee. 



Our newly printed volume of Transactions (Vol. IV) embraces twenty-three memoirs and 

 liteiary productions, accepted for publication from the papci's read at our last year's meeting. Five of 

 these are furnished by the Section of French Literature, the same number by the Section of English 

 Literature, whilst ten are provided by the Mathematical, Chemical and Physical Sciences' Section, 

 and thirteen by that for the Geological and Biological Sciences. The preponderance in the two 

 Scientific Sections is not unlookcd for, in view of the rapid expansion of late years of old fields of 

 enquiry, the opening up of others entirely new, the yearly increase in the number of woi'kcrs, and 

 the rapidity with which facilities are now being aiforded at intellectual centres for carrying out 

 investigations. Working laboratories of physics, chemistiy, biology ; museums, reference libraries, 

 and other appliances, such as wei'o formerly scarcely known within the borders of Canada, and were 

 not even thought of as within the reach of struggling colleges, have now been established in several 

 of the leading universities, and arc being rapidly created in others as necessary educational equipment 

 to enable them to maintain their standing and perform their work. Thus the teachers in our higher 

 institutions have now facilities more fully than before for carrying out researches themselves, and 

 for shewing methods to their students, who are taught to rely less upon book-knowledge, and more 

 upon the actual observation by their own senses of facts and phenomena, and the results of experi- 

 ments arranged by their own hands. Thus a great, if somewhat silent, change has been brought 

 about in recent years in the character of our higher education, so far as it relates to subjects coming 

 within range of the physical, chemical and natural sciences, inasmuch as pupils arc now subjecttd to 

 actual training in observation and experimentation and reasoning upon facts observed, instead of 

 being merely furnished with book knowledge of such facts, and exercised in figui-es, formulaB and 

 phi'ases. This change has given a new zest to such studies, and has led, in many cases, to their 

 being prolonged by college students in honor or post-gi'aduate coui'ses, beyond the mere prescribed 

 requirements for a degree. Thus willing hands are secured for woiking out unsolved problems, and 

 otherwise contributing to the general stock of knowledge, and the physical sciences, instead of being 

 regarded as merely useful for certain kinds of professional training, have ac(|uired high educational 

 value, and science itself, as a profession, has come within reach of our youth. 



It is to be borne in mind also, that in the several departments included under geological and 

 biological sciences, enquii-ies have been started that have ari-estod general attention, inviting at once 



