THIRD ORDINARY MEETING. 25 
crowned their endeavours. An experiment so successful will bear 
repetition ; and in all probability some of us here to-night will have 
the pleasure of welcoming on some future occasion the members of 
the British Association to our own City of Toronto. 
The British Association is now a little more than half a century 
old, having been established in 1831. The idea seems to have ori- 
ginated with Sir David Brewster, and to have been suggested to him 
by a German Science Congress, instituted eight years previously. 
The first meeting of the British Association was held at York, and 
the objects stated were :— 
1. To give a stronger impulse and a more systematic direction to 
scientific enquiry. 
2. To promote the intercourse of those who cultivate science in 
different parts of the British Empire with one another and with for- 
eign philosophers. 
3. To obtain a more general attention to the objects of science and 
a removal of any disadvantages of a public kind which impede its 
progress. 
It is the latter object which is, perhaps, the peculiar distinction of 
the British Association. While other learned societies are either 
select philosophical clubs or associations of those interested in some 
special branch of science, the British Association is catholic in con- 
stitution and appeals directly to the public. It demands in its 
members no literary acquirements, no special scientific attainments, 
no other qualifications, in fact, than such a degree of interest in 
science as is shewn by the payment of its fees and the attendance on 
its meetings. It is not like the Royal Society, for example, a body 
of men eminent in their respective pursuits, into which entrance is 
strictly guarded, and whose membership is looked upon as a coveted 
honour comparable with that conferred by an order of knighthood. 
Tt is rather an Association of all those interested in the progress of 
science willing to aid in its advancement or anxious to learn its con- 
dition. 
But, though it thus addresses itself to the people and welcomes 
all who care to come to its meetings, it has always numbered among 
its members the very brightest names on the roll of British Science, 
and to this fact it owes alike its dignity and its usefulness. In this 
respect, as in others, the late meeting has been well up to the mark, 
