OPENING ADDRESS—MACGREGOR. 191 
hobby horses in the form of insects and plants, and birds and 
rocks, and bringing occasionally to light facts of more or less 
utility. Because of the utility of our work we receive a little 
monetary assistance ; but countenance and encouragement and 
the opportunity of making proselytes, such as attendance at our 
meetings would provide, are but rarely given us. And that is 
as much our misfortune as our fault. For the discussion of 
a scientific paper in general is conducted, and must in many cases 
be conducted, in a language whose technical terms render it 
unintelligible to all but the initiated. It would appear there- 
fore, that our ordinary meetings, which must be devoted to the 
hearing and discussing of new and somewhat recondite things, 
cannot 1eadily be rendered wholly popular. And accordingly it 
has been proposed that we should devote some evenings to popu- 
lar lectures or to coiversaziones, or that we should organize 
excursions of a scientific kind. Doubtless, popular lectures and 
excursions have their merits and should not be neglected ; but we 
would probably get at the few vutsiders who have observational 
tastes more readily, if we could render the ordinary meeting of 
the Institute sufficiently attractive to make them regular atten- 
dants. And it is in this direction that the Institute has lately 
been moving. It may not be generally known that we are 
endeavouring now to make our ordinary monthly meetings more 
popular than they have hitherto been by the introduction of 
what may be called popular prefaces to the various scienti- 
fie papers that may be read and discussed. We invite the 
readers of papers in fact to prepare introductions which will 
enable even their non-scientific hearers tv understand the work 
of which the papers are to give an account, and to describe the 
contents of the papers in as untechnical language as possible. 
Men differ very much of course in their power of complying with 
this invitation. But in many cases the’ result has been quite 
successful, and audiences which contained but few persons who 
possessed any previous knowledge of the subject under considera- 
tion, have appeared to follow and enjoy the whole discussion. 
I think that the most of us feel that our efforts in this direction 
have been sufficiently successful to warrant our continuing them, 
