362 THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
proceedings and reports from various bodies in the United States of 
America, Mexico, South America, the British Islands, France, Spain, 
Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, 
Sweden, India, Australia, and other countries, giving us information 
as to what the learned world is doing everywhere in all departments of 
inquiry. These are of great value to the specialist, inasmuch as 
they enable him to ascertain what other specialists in his department 
are doing. We are in this way a member of a great federation of 
learned societies, each of which, as far as practicable, codperates with 
all the rest, and whose work, when summed up, amounts in each year 
to a great total, however insignificant the contributions of individual 
bodies may be. The existence of these learned societies is one of 
the marked features of the history of modern times, and both an 
index of a great advance in civilization, and an augury of still 
greater progress. 
Tn addition to encouraging research and the acquisition of know- 
ledge, we undertake to discharge the related function of receiving 
and caring for objects of scientific, historical or antiquarian interest. 
We have already accumulated a considerable collection, which we 
are now engaged in classifying, and we hope ultimately to have here 
a museum which will be one of the most interesting sights in the city. 
We have hitherto been prevented from arranging our material by two 
causes. Before this, building was erected we had no room ; since its 
erection we have had no money. We now feel able to attempt to 
devote a little money every year to this purpose; not as much indeed, 
as we would like, but still some. I know of no object to which one 
of our wealthy fellow citizens could better devote a legacy of a few 
thousand dollars, than to the building up of our museum. And there 
is a pressing need of a good museum somewhere in Ontario, for one 
reason. There are scattered over this country an immense number of 
objects of ethnological and archeological interest, that have recently 
been obtained from Indian ossuaries which reveal to us the physical 
character and state of civilization of the aborigines of this country 
before they came into contact with the white race. Unless some 
effort is made to prevent it many of the most valuable of these relics 
will be lost, or destroyed, or carried off to other countries. The 
Canadian Institute proposes to do what it can to meet this want, and 
it asks for the hearty codperation of all who feel the importance of 
the work. 
