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THE LA.TE PROFESSOR HINCKS. 



At the opening meeting of the session or the Canadian Institute for 1871-2. 

 the President referred to the recent death of Professor Hincks in the following^ 

 terms : 



Before proceeding to the business of the evening it will be becoming in me 

 to give some expression to that feeling of deep loss which I am sure the mem- 

 bers of the Canadian Institute experience in being deprived by death of the 

 presence amongst them of the late Professor Hinoks. He was, as you know, for 

 two years our President, for several years the editor of our Journal, and from 

 the moment of his arrival in Canada to the day almost of hia decease an active 

 member of our body, furthering its objects, promoting its well-being, and sus- 

 taining its reputation, as well by his written and oral communications, as by 

 his exertions otherwise, and ready help on every possible occasion. I need but 

 allude to the heartfelt regret which we feel at the thought that we are to see his 

 face no more ; that we are no more to hear amongst us his earnest animating 

 voice. The time is so very recent when we beheld him visibly before us, no 

 laboured description is required to recall to our minds his form, his air, his manner 

 of speech. Himself sincerely enjoying to the minutest tittle the wide and varied 

 subject-matter of his own special departments of study and research, it was to 

 him manifestly a never-failing pleasure to share with others every particle of the 

 light and information which yielded to himself so much hearty satisfaction ; and 

 I doubt not there are many here who will ever associate numerous welcome ad- 

 ditions to their own mental stores with words uttered by Professor Hincks, — 

 words always so telling and interesting, on the one hand by reason of their real 

 value, and on the other in virtue of that slight tincture of archaism in their com- 

 bination and delivery, which was suggestive of a literary and scientific school 

 now beginning in the mother country to be regarded as historical. 



Most of the papers by the late Professor that enrich the pages of the Canadian 

 Journal were read, as you know, before the Institute. Several of them will fur- 

 nish material for the use of scientific men engaged especially in Canadian inves- 

 tigations ; as, for example, his paper in Vol. vi., p. 165, entitled a " Specimen of 

 the Floi'a of Canada," and another in Vol. vii., p. 446, " Matei'ials for a Fauna 

 Canadensis," Other papers contributed by him on subjects connected with his 

 especial department of science are "Natural History in its relation to Agricul- 

 ture," " Considerations respecting anomalous vegetable structures," "The Fa- 

 mily of Falconidaj," " On some questions in relation to the theory of the struc- 

 ture of plants of the orders Brassicacca; and Primulaceaj," " Remarks on the 

 classification of Mammalia," " An attempt at an improved classification of Fruits," 

 " The Struthionida;," " On Molluscous Animals," " The Grallatores," " An Im- 

 proved Arrangement of Ferns." tfec. Within his especial department his range 

 was, as we see, wide. He did not, however, confine himself to such limits. In 

 the Journal we have contributions of his on metaphysical and social-science 

 questions ; as, for example, " The Sensational Philosophy," " A new Theory of 

 Human Emotions," " Thoughts on Belief and Evidence," " The true aims, foun- 

 dations and claims of Political Economy," "Onthe Interchange of Commodities 



