lxiii 



REPORT OF THE COUNCIL. 



Report of the Council for the year 1883-84, presented to the General 

 Committee at Montreal, on Wednesday, August 27, 1884. 



The Council have received reports during the past year from the 

 General Treasurer, and his account for the year will be laid before the 

 General Committee this day. 



Since the meeting at Southport, Dr. P. Lindemann and Dr. Ernst 

 Schroder have been elected Corresponding Members of the Association. 



The present meeting of the British Association, the fifty-fourth in 

 number, is likely to be long memorable in its annals ; as the first held 

 beyond the limits of the United Kingdom. It marks a new point of 

 departure, and one probably never contemplated by the founders of the 

 Association, although not forbidden by the laws which they drew up. 

 The experiment was doubtless a hazardous one, but it seems likely to be 

 justified by success ; and it may be hoped that the vigour and vitality 

 gained by new experience may ultimately compensate for the absence 

 from this meeting of not a few familiar faces among the older members • 

 there will, however, be as large a gathering of members of more than one 

 year's standing as is usual at a successful meeting in Great Britain, and 

 the efforts which have been made by our hosts to facilitate the coming of 

 members, and render their stay in Canada both pleasant and instructive 

 call for the warmest acknowledgment. 



The inducements offered to undertake the journey were indeed so 

 great that the Council felt that it would be necessary to place some 

 restriction upon the election of new members, which for many years past, 

 thongh not unchecked in theory, has been almost a matter of course in 

 practice. Obviously these offers of the Canadian hosts of the British 

 Association were made to its members, not to those on whom they might 

 operate as an inducement to be enrolled amongst its members. The 

 Council, therefore, before the close of the Southport meeting, published 

 the following resolution : — ' That after the termination of the present 

 month (September 1883), until further notice, new members be only 

 elected by special resolution of the Council.' Applications for admission 

 under these terms were very numerous, and were carefully sifted by the 

 Council. Still, although the Council, as time progressed and the number 

 augmented, increased the stringency of their requirements, it became 

 evident that the newly-elected members would soon assume an unduly 

 large proportion to those of older standing, so that on May 6, after electing 

 130 members under this rule, it was resolved to make no more elections 

 until the commencement of the Montreal meeting, when it would be safe 

 to revert to the usual practice. 



The details of the arrangements made for the journey have already 

 been communicated to the members, so that it is needless to make any 



