Precis of pages I to 8. 



SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT or THE VICTORIA INSTITUTE. 



SIR H. BAEKLY, G.C.M.G., K.C.B., F.R.S., IN THE CHAIR. 



EXTRACTS FROM THE REPORT. 



" IN presenting the SEVENTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT, the Council desires to 

 state that, in spite of those adverse influences affecting all Societies, the 

 Institute's progress at home and abroad continues to be very satisfactory. 

 [The Institute now consists of 1,020 Home and Foreign Members and 

 Associates ; only 14 Members and 9 Associates have retired during the year.] 



" The number of new American members joining does not diminish, although 

 the Institute's American offshoot (which is an independent Society), is rapidly 

 advancing. In Australia and South Africa a system of corresponding local 

 secretaries has worked well, and will be extended. 



"As regards the Institute's Philosophical and Scientific Investigations, an 

 increasing number of home and foreign Members and friends now contribute 

 to enhance their value, and aid the Institute in filling that position which 

 its aims demand. It exchanges Transactions with many leading London 

 Societies, whose Members whether in its ranks or not willingly render aid 

 when consulted. 



" The adhesion of such men as PASTEUR and WURTZ, and many others at 

 home and abroad, has tended to render the Institute more useful ' at a time 

 when principles which a few years ago would have been taken for granted 

 by ninety-nine out of every hundred persons are now all of a sudden brought 

 up for discussion, and doubt thrown upon them,' and when it is so important 

 that accurate scientific research should be encouraged and insisted upon. 



" Her Majesty the Queen, in consequence of a communication from the 

 President, has been graciously pleased to accept the volumes of the Transactions 

 of the Victoria Institute. It is hoped that ere long Her Majesty may become 

 its patron. (See Vol. I., p. 31.) 



" Members and others in many parts of the world have written, expressing 

 warm approval of the Institute, and their sense of the value of the Journal. 

 (See Part 65, pages 9 et seq.) The papers and discussions are referred to by 

 many as especially useful by reason of their containing careful examinations of 

 those questions of Philosophy and Science said (by its enemies) to militate 

 against the truth of Revelation. 



" A demand for the Journal has arisen on the part of the large Colonial and 

 American Libraries ; several have purchased complete sets. 



" Spain is now added to the list of countries in which the Transactions are 

 translated. 



" The Journal is much used by Members and others lecturing at home, in 

 India, and the Colonies." 



THE RESOLUTIONS PROPOSED WERE : 



1 . The Adoption of the Report and Vote of thanks to the Council. 



2. Vote of thanks to those who had aided in the Institute's investiga- 



tions during the year, and to the Bishop of Derry, for reading 

 the late Lord O'Neill's paper. 



3. Vote of condolence with the Dowager Lady O'Neill. 



4. Vote of thanks to the Chairman. 



Refreshments were afterwards served in the Museum. 



The Transactions now extend to sixteen volumes, containing the papers 

 and discussions thought worthy of publication. Some are purely scientific, such 

 as the paper on the Isomorphism of Crystalline Bodies, and some take up those 

 questions of Science or Philosophy which bear upon the truths revealed in 

 Scripture, these latter are taken up solely with a view to elucidating the 



Truth, and getting rid of such theories as might prove baseless. Purely theo- 

 logical questions are left for other societies, and minister 



ministers of religion. 



