PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS FERGUSSON. CXV 



old teacher Prof. P. G. Tait, and occupying that post until 

 his death. 



As a student at Dalhousie University he had a career 

 unsurpassed in the history of that institution, the calendar 

 of 1871 showing his name opposite every prize open to him, 

 and his subsequent life was but a continuance of that appetite 

 and capactiy for work which distinguished his early days. 



While holding the position of Munro Professor of Physics 

 at Dalhousie, he for several summers during his vacations, 

 returned to Edinburgh to work in the larger laboratories there, 

 and thus when Edinburgh University called him, he was no 

 stranger, but one whose worth and value were known. 



At Dalhousie University he acted as Secretary of the 

 Faculty of Arts, and later as Secretary to the Senate, and there 

 as in his laboratory and class rooms he was a source of inspir- 

 ation to those with whom he came in contact. The same may 

 be said of him in relation to our society which he joined in 

 January, 1887. He was our President 1888-91, and for the 

 work he did in this connection I must refer you to the paper 

 on Past Presidents given at the beginning of this last session 

 by our able Secretary, Mr. Piers. 



At Edinburgh, he, during the twelve years there, developed 

 and extended the Department of Natural Philosophy, chang- 

 ing the old Infirmary in Drummond Street into a well equipped 

 physical laboratory, and his energies in that direction were 

 only limited by lack of funds. 



A foundation F. R. S. C., he was President of the mathe- 

 matical and physical section of that body in 1892, was a 

 Fellow and Councillor of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and 

 in 1900 was elected a F. R. S. 



He contributed papers to our Society, to the Trans. Roy. 

 Soc'y, Canada, Philosophical Magazine and the Physical 

 Review, and was author of "Kinematics and Dynamics" 

 (1887-1902) and "Physical Laws and Observations." 



