XXxiv REPORT — 1844. 



of their operations, that the founders of the Association cautiously guarded 

 against any extension of its boundaries wliich might tend to admit new claim- 

 ants to its occupation. They did not attempt to define the precise limits at 

 which accurate science terminates and speculation begins, but they endea- 

 voured to keep sufficiently within them to prevent the intrusion of discussions 

 which might disturb the peace of our body or even endanger its existence- 

 Experience has fully established the wisdom of this law, and the absolute 

 necessity of a rigid adherence to its provisions. 



In returning to the scene of our first labours, the place of our nativity, 

 it becomes us, as grateful children, to acknowledge our filial obligations to 

 our founders. 



I regret to say that, for my own part, I can claim no share in the honour 

 which that character confers, having been engaged at the time, in common 

 with my friends the Master of Trinity College and Professor Sedgwick, in 

 duties at Cambridge from which it was impossible for us to escape. I ven- 

 ture, therefore, in the name of all those who are similarly circumstanced with 

 myself, to render our just tribute of gratitude to the venerable Archbishop 

 of this province, who bears the honours of his high station in a green and 

 vigorous old age, and whose munificent patronage and support we must ever 

 be ready to acknowledge ; to the Noble Earl, our first President, who main- 

 tains so worthily the honours of the house of Wentworth ; to Viscount Mor- 

 peth, the accomplished representative of the name and honours of another of 

 the princely houses of this great county ; to Sir J. Johnstone, who so gene- 

 rously protected the old age of the Father of English Geology ; to Sir Thomas 

 Macdougall Brisbane, who is equally eminent as a patron and a cultivator of 

 astronomy, and whose infirm health alone prevents his being present at this 

 Meeting ; to Sir David Brewster, so justly celebrated for his numerous and 

 important discoveries in physical optics, and in almost every department of 

 physical science, who first suggested and urged the scheme of our Institution ; 

 to Mr. William Vernon Harcourt, our lawgiver and proper founder ; to our 

 indefatigable General Secretary, Mr. Murchison, who assisted so materially 

 in our first organization and subsequent progress, and who has only once been 

 absent from our Meetings, when engaged in extending his own Silurian system 

 to the feet of the Ural Mountains and into the steppes of Siberia ; to Dr. 

 Daubeny, who has studied so successfully the relations of chemistry to geology 

 and agriculture, and who has at all times laboured so strenuously in our ser- 

 vice ; to Professor Johnston of Durham, who has taken a distinguished part 

 in the great extension which agricultural chemistry has recently made, and 

 who has at various times been a valuable contributor to our Reports ; to 

 Dr. William Pearson, so distinguished as a practical astronomer and the libe- 

 ral founder of the observatory in this city; to Mr. Greenough, whose map 

 was so important a contribution to English geology; to Professor Forbes of 

 Edinburgh, one of the most distinguished of the living cultivators of physical 

 science, and whose important scientific tours alone have prevented his attend- 

 ance at some of our later Meetings ; to Dr. Scoresby, whose early adven- 

 tures contrast so remarkably and yet so honourably with the labours and 

 occupations of his maturer years ; to Professor Phillips, who has so long and 

 so ably organized the complicated machinery of our Meetings, and reduced 

 our annual volumes into order and form ; and to Mr. J, Taylor, our excellent 

 Treasurer, whose punctuality and vigilance has kept order and system in every 

 department of our finances. 



A reference to the list of our founders presents, as might be expected after 

 a lapse of thirteen years, some very distinguished names who have been lost 



