PRESIDENTS CLOSING REMARKS. 201 



Let this be a proof of the existence of the spirit of science which 

 has at all times inspired it, and of the goodwill of the directing 

 Council of its Institution, which following in the wake of Galileo and 

 of the Accademia del Cimento, places its trust in science and progress 

 alone. 



The PRESIDENT : In rising, as I now do, to offer our best thanks to 

 our foreign friends who have just given us this account of these remark- 

 able instruments, I wish to add, that it seems not without significance 

 or happiness of accident that the last contribution to this Physical 

 Section of the Conference should have been made by a foreigner. We 

 are indebted very materially to our foreign friends for the success 

 which, at all events up to this point, has attended this exhibition. We 

 are indebted in the first place to the Governments who have given an 

 impetus throughout all Europe to this undertaking. We are indebted 

 to the foreign Academies who have taken up the movement on the part 

 of the Governments ; we are indebted, further, to the curators and 

 the authorities connected with the museums who have so largely con- 

 tributed to our collection ; and we are indebted still further to the 

 individual men of science who have been permitted to transport the 

 collections of these instruments, and have put the crowning stroke 

 upon their efforts by giving us the favour and instruction of their pre- 

 sence here. While, however, I am speaking of foreigners (and I cannot 

 say too much on that score), we must not forget the efforts which have 

 been made, and which originated in this country. We are indebted in 

 the first place to the heads of the department under whose auspices 

 this exhibition has been brought together. We are indebted also to 

 the various men of science throughout the country who co-operated ; 

 but we must not forget those who have so largely contributed to re- 

 moving the preliminary difficulties. I mean those few energetic and 

 self-devoted individuals who have done perhaps more than any one 

 else to insure the success of the undertaking. Many names might be 

 mentioned, but I must not omit to name particularly Major Donelly, 

 Major Testing, and Mr. Lockyer. To-day is, I am sorry to say, the 

 last of the conferences in the Physical department, but I have no doubt 

 that the success which has attended our meetings in this department 

 will attend all the others to the close of the Conference. We have in 

 these meetings, and in the collection which is covered in this building, 



