FIRST WINTER MEETING.— OCTOBER 28th, 1908. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDKESS By Me. SIDNEY HARVEY, F.I.C., F.C.S. 



The annual nict'tini^ of the Society was held on 

 October 2S at the Bt-aney Institute, Canterbury. 

 Mr. Sidney Harvey, F.I.C., F.C.S., the President 

 of the Society, having recovered from his recent 

 indisix)sition, was now able to attend, and the 

 attendance also included .- — Captiin Gordon 

 McDakin, Kev. A. J. Galpin, Messrs. P. Moring, 

 A. Lander, W. Cozens, C. A. Gardner, H. Page, 

 J. P., Underhill, H. Mapleton Chapman. Jeffs, 

 Leeming, J. G. Jolinson, Mrs. and Miss Hai-vey, 

 Miss Holmes, Miss PhiUpotts, Miss Cozens. Dr. 

 Pittock, Dr. Graham Wills, and Mr. and Mrs. J. T. 

 Smith. 



ELECTION OF OFFICERS. 



The election of officers for the ensuing year 

 resulted as under; --President, Mr. Sidney Harvey, 

 F.I.C., F C.S. ; Vice-Presidents, the Very Rev. the 

 Dean of Canterbury, the Rev. A. J. Galpin, M.A., 

 Captain Gordon McDakin ; hon. treasurer, Mr. 

 Walter Cozens ; hon. libi*arian, Mr. H. T. Mead ; 

 committee, his Worship the Mayor (Alderman 

 Bennett Goldney, F.S.A.), Mr. H. M. Chapman, 

 Mr. F. M. Facur. B.A., Mr. W. H. Hammond. Mr. 

 W. T. Leeming, M.Sc. Dr. G. M. Pittoek, M.K.C.S., 

 F.R.M.S., Mr. P. Moring: hon. sec, Mr. A. 

 Lander ; reporting sec, Mr. W. T. Leeming, M.Sc. ; 

 assistant hon. sees., Mr. K. B. Hayward, Mr. C. A. 

 Gardner ; local secretaries and referees as last year. 



A very cordial vote of thanks was moved by the 

 President to Mr. W. P. Mann in acknowledgment 

 of the valuable help wMch he afforded the 

 Society for so many years. Mr. Harvey referred 

 to the very active interest which had always been 

 shown by that gentleman down to the time of his 

 recent departure from Canterbury, and especially 

 cotament«d upon the large part taken by Mr. 

 Mann iuensmnng the great success achieved on the 

 occ^ision of the celebration of the Society's 

 jubilee, when a conversazione was held in the 

 Langton School buildings. 



Other speakers supported the proposition, which 

 was unanimously adopted. 



The Rev. L. H. Evans and Mr. C. C. Roberts 

 were elected members of the Society. 



The Society possesses a complete set of the 

 publication Nature, from its commencement, copies 

 having hitherto been presented by Dr. Masters, 

 through Mr. Brian Rigden and Mr. W. P. Mann. 

 Owing to the death of Dr. Masters this has been 

 discontinued, and it was agreed that in future the 

 Society purchase copies. 



THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



The President Elect said he thanked them for 

 having again elected him, though he could not 

 help regretting tliat someone else was not chosen, 

 having regard t" liis time of life and to the fact 

 that after his already long connection with the 

 Society he would be unable t<> put forward much 



that was novel to them (No, no). His heart was 

 in his work, but he found that his strength wa.s 

 not what it was, and he had to apologise that 

 night for the first time in his official connection 

 with the Society for having failed to be at his post 

 — indisposition having prevented his attendance 

 on the previous Wednesday evening. He was vei-y 

 anxious that the first year after their jubilee 

 might be a successfid year, and that great and 

 warm interest should attach to their meetings and 

 proceedings. There was plenty to talk about and 

 no lack of subjects for investigation, and he 

 ventured tlie hope that they might all work 

 together and make the session a great success 

 (applause). He proposed to say a few words to 

 them that night upon two very remarkable 

 instances of successful research. The fii-st instance 

 which he wished to illustrate was that which led 

 to the discovery of the planet Neptune. Tliat 

 took them back to the early Forties — about IS-ifJ. 

 His object in drawing attention to that subject 

 was, firstly, to show what magnificent results 

 might come from careful observation, and, 

 secondly, to show how very singularly that re- 

 search contrasted with another research which was 

 still going on in Europe. The discovery of the 

 planetNeptune was. of course, a tale which had of ten 

 been told, and he did not profess that there was 

 anything new about it — it was only because of the 

 parallelism that he was led to touch upon it. It 

 was one of those grand instances of the careful 

 working out of a theory in strict agreement with 

 what we knew of natural law. He might remind 

 them that in 17S1 Herschel discovered the planet 

 Uranus. That was a planet outside the illustrious 

 Seven Planets of tlie Ancients and much beyond 

 the orbit of Saturn. Until Herschel discovered a 

 strange object, and, watching it night by night, 

 saw it change its position in the heavens — which 

 an ordinary star would not do-and took note of the 

 fact that it could hardly be called a comet, 

 nothing was known about it. Herschel worked 

 out some of its main elements, calculated its 

 orbit, its mass and other facts relating to it, and 

 then very modestly gave it the name of Georgium 

 Sidus. Others requested that it should be 

 named after the discoverer, he being one of the 

 most illustrious of astronomers. Ultimately, it 

 was called Uranus, but he (Mr. Harvey) 

 never could find out why. Herschel said its 

 period was about eighty-four years, by which 

 was meant that it took eighty-four years for it 

 to make its journey round the sun. Later. 

 certain pei-txirbations were noticed, which led 

 some speculative astronomers to imagine that 

 there was some other body in the system of our 

 sun which affected the motions of Uranus to a 

 considerable extent. These were worked out alsa 

 and as a restUt two astronomers, Adams of Cam- 



