PROCEEDINGS 
OF THE JUN 22 1896 
Aova Scotian Enstitute of Science. 
SESSION OF 1894-5. 
ANNUAL Business MEETING. 
Provincial Musewn, Halifax, 12th November, 1894. 
Pror. Grorce Lawson, Lu. D., PRestpENtT, in the chair. 
The minutes of the last annual meeting were read and approved. 
The Presipent addressed the Institute as follows :— 
GENTLEMEN,— We have assembled this evening as Members of the 
Nova Scotian Institute oF Science, for the performance of two distinct 
duties,—first, to close the session of 1893-94, which we now speak of as 
past ; and secondly, to enter upon the operations of another year and lay 
plans for the future. Weare thus required, Janus-like, to put on two 
faces, one looking backward, the other forward. The annual address 
must be to a large extent a looking backward, for it is expected we shall 
give some account of our stewardship. It is my place as president to 
deliver the address on this occasion, because a year ago you thought fit 
to appoint me to fill your most honorable office. I was conscious that 
you might well have made a better choice, fer I felt that the president 
of a scientific body like this should be prepared to give time and energy 
for more arduous labor than that of sitting in a chair at the monthly 
meetings. I was not ignorant of the fact that the most active workers 
are apt to entertain an abnegative spirit in regard to such things, to 
shirk prominence and seek gratification in the quiet pursuit of know- 
ledge rather than the attainment of personal distinction. While this 
