EDITOR'S TABLE. 



843 



pathy of the people, and by going 

 from place to place seeks to instruct 

 them in their very homes in the 

 highest achievements of research. 

 There can hardly be a more effective 

 way of promoting the advancement 

 of science than by these meetings, 

 now here and now there, through 

 which the beauties of knowledge are 

 disclosed to the public, and the thirst 

 for its acquisition and extension is 

 aroused in whole communities at a 

 time. The greatest scientific lights 

 of Great Britain, France, and Ger- 

 many love to do this. Thus, at the 

 meeting of the British Association 

 just held at Toronto, we have seen 

 such men as Lord Kelvin and Lord 

 Lister, Sir John Evans, and a dozen 

 others of almost corresponding 

 prominence, present, as interested 

 and taking as active a part as if 

 they were younger men still hav- 

 ing their spurs to win. Other men, 

 in their respective days of equal 

 standing in science with these, 

 whose books are standard authorities 

 wherever the English language is 

 spoken, have habitually attended the 

 previous meetings of this body be- 

 cause their heart is in the work of 

 making the whole world sharers in 

 the benefit of what they have been 

 able to discover. We can not but 

 think that the eminent students of 

 America who fail to do likewise are 

 committing a great mistake. 



THE TOE ON TO MEETING OF THE 

 BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



THE British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science has now, 

 for the second time, held an an- 

 nual meeting on this continent. In 

 the year 1884 it met at Montreal; 

 this year it met at Toronto. The 

 Montreal meeting was not, on the 

 whole, considered a very successful 

 or in any way notable one; but this 

 year conditions and circumstances 

 seem to have proved more favorable, 



and we believe the Toronto meeting 

 will be remembered with much sat- 

 isfaction by all who took part in it. 

 Toronto, as a city, is well adapted 

 for convention purposes, and the 

 noble grounds and buildings of To- 

 ronto University formed a most ad- 

 mirable and charming focus for the 

 work of a learned assembly. The 

 visitors were favored also with the 

 very finest weather which the cli- 

 mate of this continent is capable of 

 producing; and that helped not a 

 little to put every one in good spirits 

 and give animation to the proceed- 

 ings. Great names were not want- 

 ing amid the throng. The retiring 

 president, Lord Lister, whose name 

 all the world honors, was there to 

 hand over his office to the distin- 

 guished archaeologist Sir John 

 Evans. To see Lord Lister and hear 

 the tones of his voice is to recognize 

 in him the friend of human kind 

 a noble example at once of scientific 

 eminence and moral greatness. Lord 

 Kelvin, too, was there with his ear- 

 nest, kindly, unassuming manner 

 and wonderfully penetrating intel- 

 ligence a man who bears his great 

 honors meekly, as becomes one 

 whose fame rests upon a sure foun- 

 dation. Michael Foster was also 

 present, a man who has trained and 

 inspired with something of his own 

 zeal a whole generation of physiolo- 

 gists at the University of Cambridge. 

 Biology was further represented by 

 such men as Profs. L. C. Miall and 

 Lloyd Morgan; physics, by Oliver 

 Lodge and Sylvanus Thompson; 

 chemistry, by Prof. W. Ramsay, of 

 argon fame; geography, by Mr. J. 

 Scott Keltic; political science, by the 

 Eight Hon. W. Bryce, author of 

 The American Commonwealth. We 

 name but a few; there were men of 

 eminence and merit on every hand. 

 Associated with their scientific 

 brethren from England, and taking 

 a prominent part in the proceedings 



