11 PROCEEDINGS. 



So far as numbers of scientific communications are concerned, the past session has 

 been a very successful one. Sixteen papers were submitted to the Institute, some 

 of them of much interest and value. They were distributed as follows, four in the 

 department of Geology, three in Zoology, one in Botany, one in Chemistry, four 

 in Physics, one in Engineering and two of a biographical character. 



It will thus be seen that the scope of the Institute's work has got beyond the 

 range of the departments of science indicated by its name. And tliis fact applies 

 to other recent sessions as well as that which terminates to-night. Thus in 1889- 

 90 the following papers were communicated : — three in Geology, four in Zoology, 

 two in Physics, and two in Archteology. 



This tendency in our work to widen in its subject-matter has led us to consider 

 the desirability of modifying our name so as to make it indicate the full scope of 

 the Institute's exertions. The old name Institute of Natural Science had given 

 rise to the impression that the society was intended to be a society of naturalists, 

 and tended to repress the interest which men engaged in other departments of 

 work might have taken in it. At the same time it was found to hamper us in our 

 endeavour to secure by exchange the publications of other societies, societies of 

 naturalists being always ready to exchange with us, but those devoted to depart- 

 ments not usually included under the term Natural Science requiring usually to 

 have it specially explained to them that our work was wider than our name indi- 

 cated. It was felt that as there was no other society in the I'rovince of a scien- 

 tific kind, our Institixte ought to extend its field to all departments of science, 

 pure and applied, and thus both encourage research in all such departments and 

 build up, by exchange, a library for the use of those engaged in them. And, 

 therefore, at a special meeting of the Institute, called for the purpose, during the 

 past session, we resolved that onr society should henceforth be known as the 

 Nova Scotian Institute of Science. And we hope that while in the future those 

 departments of natural science which we have cultivated in the past most assidu- 

 ously, may be studied to a still greater extent, other departments for M'hich we 

 have so far done little or nothing, may also receive earnest attention. The num- 

 ber of our scientific workers in all departments is but small, and it cannot but be 

 beneficial that we should be banded together and be enabled thereby to secure 

 the stimulus which springs from a sympathetic, even though not a wholly intelli- 

 gent, interest. 



While we have been enlarging our membership and providing for the extension 

 of the region of our activity, we have also been making exertions during the past 

 year to provide our members with one of the most necessary means of research, 

 viz., books. Since our last annual meeting, besides sending copies of our last 

 issue of Transactions to the societies already on our exchange list, we have sent 

 them to 300 other societies, museums, and other institutions, accompanied by 

 circulars and letters, stating the nature and circumstances of our Institute and 

 proposing an exchange of publications. In the case of the societies already on 

 our list we have asked them to complete our sets of their pu])lications, in order 

 that we might bind them up and make them more readily available. And in the 

 case of many of the other societies we have proposed an interchange of earlier 

 publications as well as of those issued in future. This effort to add to our library 

 a large portion of the most valuable part of scientific literature, the Transactions 



