PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



Joba ,Scotian Institute of .Science, 



SESSION OK 1896-7. 



ANNUAL BUSINESS MEETING. 



Legislative Council Chamber, Halifax, 9th November, 1896. 

 The PRESIDENT, DR. GILPIN, in the chair. 

 The PRESIDENT addressed the Institute as follows : 



GENTLEMEN, I have much pleasure in meeting you to-night. I 

 present myself your representative to mark the close of another year of 

 the existence of the Institute, and to inaugurate a new session. 



In one sense, I may claim to be numbered among the oldest of those 

 who have been interested in this Society. Although it is nearly a 

 quarter of a century since I was allowed to read my first paper before 

 you, there are a number of you who have been for a much longer period 

 members. 



I remember, however, being present and watching as a boy the 

 initiatory meeting of the Institute, being the more interested as the 

 late Dr. Gilpin, who read the first paper in our proceedings, took an 

 active part. Almost all the original members have now ceased from 

 work, but their record remains. 



From its commencement, the Institute members have ranged over 

 all the fields of science open to observers in this Province, and have 

 recorded their opinions and deductions according to the lights of their 

 days. Their arguments may now be displaced or amended in the focus 

 of the science of to-day or to-morrow ; the facts they have accumulated 



(Ixxix) 



