president's address. 11 



to whicli I have called attention above, renders the cost of binding 

 much heavier than before, and is a new and heavy drain upon our 

 limited resources. 



III.— THE MUSEUM. 



The educational value of public museums is so evident that I need 

 not enlarge upon it. In the past history of the Institute many 

 valuable and interesting specimens have been pi-esented to its museum, 

 both biological and archseological^ but a great portion has disappeared, 

 simply because we have been too poor to house them. At the pres- 



-ent juncture there are awaiting us renewed gifts of very great value, 

 which may be lost to the Institute and public for the same reason, 

 unless vigoi'ous measures are at once adopted. Some provision we 

 have already made in this direction, and some further provision can 

 be made without seriously increasing the load of our obligations. 

 But if our museum is to be one worth visiting, it should have an 

 income independent of that derived from members' fees. The mere 

 collection of specimens, I may add, does not fulfil all the needs of a 

 good biological museum. It should be supplemented by the purchase 

 of a microscope of the best pattern and highest powers. vSuch an 

 instrument, available to public use, is not to be found in the city of 

 Toronto ; yet it is. indispensable for the purposes of applied biology 



. and chemistiy, for the proper examination of organic bodies, and for 

 the study of disease germs. The cost of such a microscope is_ about 

 $500. I am happy to be able to state that, through the efforts of 

 Mr. J. H. Pearce, one of our most active members, the sum of $60 

 for this object has ah^eady been collected. 



IV.— PUBLIC LECTURES. 



The inestimable value of free courses of public lectures, particu- 

 larly to young men engaged in winning tLeir bread by laborious toil, 

 hardly needs a word of comment. "Why should we not have such 

 courses in Toronto as the Somerville lectures, for instance, at Mon- 

 treal, held in connection with the Montreal Natural History Society I 

 The Canadian Institute would be only too glad to provide this kind 

 of public instruction. But again the answer is : " No funds !" 



■ Omitting the cost of publication, which we may fairly expect to 

 defray from our present resources, our needs may be summed up as 



.follows : — 



