89 



THE LUMINIFEROUS ETHER. 



I MUST ill the first instauce express my regret that we 

 are disappointed with respect to an impojtant paper 

 which Avas to have been brought before you at our Anni- 

 versary Meeting. It was found almost at the last moment 

 that the Author would be unable to bring it on, and at the 

 request of the Council I have undertaken at short notice, 

 and in the midst of various other engagements, to address 

 you to-night. 



In choosing a subject, I have been guided in part by the 

 opinion 1 entertain of the proper functions of the Victoria 

 Institute. It is not, I conceive, a society established for the 

 prosecution of original research simply as such; the field 

 in that respect was already occupied ; in the fii'st instance 

 by the oldest scientific society in the kingdom, almost in 

 the Avorld — the Royal Society ; and more recently by other 

 societies which have sprung into existence for the special 

 cultivation of divisions into which the general subject of 

 science has been split, in consequence of the great extent 

 which it has attained. A young Institute, like the present, 

 cannot expect to rival these ancient or more recently estab- 

 hshed special scientific societies ; nor is it desirable, in my opin- 

 ion, that such an attempt should be made. I do not, therefore, 

 regard it in the slightest degree as a rival to the Royal Society; 

 and it was only because I was strongly impressed with the 

 entu-e difference of the functions of the two Societies, that 

 I felt it not incompatible with my position at the time as 

 President of the Royal Society to accept the position which 

 had been offered me of the Presidency of the Victoria 

 Institute. The Society, as is proved by its original rules, was 

 established more especially to examine from the scientific side 



