ii PROCEEDINGS. 



spirit was to be respected, it did not afford a sufficient reason for my 

 acceding to your request ; but, on the other hand, I knew that the com- 

 pliment which you wished to pay me after thirty years' membership of 

 the Institute was sincere, and was actuated by the kindliest feelings. 

 When, moreover, I was assured of substantial help from the resident 

 vice-president and secretaries, it seemed that no other course was left me 

 but to accept the position, to thank you all for the honor conferred upon 

 me, and proceed to do what I could in discharge of the duties so 

 undertaken. 



And now that my term of office is completed, I ask your attention 

 to a brief review of the operations of the year. This will enable us 

 the better to realize our position, in the present, and to forecast the work 

 that remains for the future. So fortified, we may make a fresh start. 



It is pleasing to be able to record that this year our membership has 

 not been reduced either by death or resignation. Our list has been 

 increased by the admission of seven ordinary and two corresponding 

 members. 



During the session, seven ordinary monthly meetings for the reading 

 of scientific papers were held. At these meetings twenty papers were 

 read ; their subjects presented considerable variety. The session com- 

 menced, in accordance with our laws, with the annual meeting of 

 members of 8th November, when Dr. Martin Murphy, the retiring 

 President, read an address, in which he reviewed the work of the bye- 

 gone year. On the same evening an ordinary public meeting was 

 constituted. The first paper read was by Prof. MacGregor, of Dalhousie 

 College, on the isothermal and adiabatic expansion of gases ; its object 

 was to show how certain important laws of the expansion of gases 

 extensively employed in the study of heat engines, and usually demon- 

 strated by the aid of the calculus, may be demonstrated by the use of 

 elementary mathematical methods. The demonstration of these laws 

 was thus brought within the comprehension of engineers who had not 

 had the advantage of an extensive mathematical training. 



At the December meeting, Dr. Somers called attention to the native 

 forms of juniper, giving details of his observation of the variations 

 in habit of these plants, and exhibiting living specimens showing 

 more particularly the upright arborescent or tree-forms of Juniperus 

 communis, a species which, both in Europe and America, commonly 

 appears on bare hills and sand-dunes as a depressed bush without any 



