OPENING ADDRESS—MACGREGOR. 189 
Our work may be said roughly to be three-fold—(1) Investi- 
gating ; (2) Stimulating the love of investigation; and (3) Pro- 
viding the means of investigating. 
The first and purely scientific part of our work is the exten- 
sion of our knowledge of Natural Science, more particularly of 
the Natural Science of our own Province, by original investiga- 
tion. Toa great extent this must be the outcome of the know- 
ledge and tastes and resources of individual members of the 
Institute, each member following the bent of his own inclination 
and doing the work which falls to his hand, while the Society 
aids by providing sympathetic criticism. This is the work which 
the Institute has hitherto for the most part done, with what re- 
sult our Transactions bear witness. It is not permitted unto us 
to glory, but we may nevertheless say that a large amount of 
this individual work has been done. And while our publications 
contain much that on looking back we would wish had never 
seen the light, they contain still more in which the most rigorous 
critic can take delight, and feel a justifiable pride. 
There are a great many important scientific problems, how- 
ever, which cannot be solved by the isolated work of individuals, 
but require the concerted action of a great many observers, not 
necessarily highly skilled observers, but intelligent men, working 
under the guidance of one who is able to direct them as to what 
they should observe, and to record and systematise their observa- 
tions. This collective form of work has been attempted only to 
a very limited extent by the Institute, owing probably to the 
difficulty of securing the necessary observers. Butif this difficul- 
ty could be overcome,—and now that our teachers are obtaining 
a knowledge of the elements of science, it would seem to be more 
easily overcome than heretofore,—we might very largely increase 
the “output” of our Society. I may mention as a subject re- 
quiring for its proper elucidation the combined observations of 
many observers, the occurrence of luminous meteors. Any per- 
son with such knowledge of the constellations »s may be obtained 
from a fairly good star-atlas could describe the apparent path of 
a meteor in the heavens, and the comparison of the apparent 
paths as seen by different observers would shew what the actual 
