THIRD ORDINARY MEETING. 30 



public funds or from private munificence. Without liberality in this 

 respect there can be no scientific progress. 



Now it is obvious that private contributions to scientific objects can 

 only be looked for in a community among which a knowledge of the 

 importance of science and of the needs of science is prevalent. So, 

 also, no considerable grants of public money for scientific purposes 

 can be expected unless those who control the public purse are im- 

 pressed with the importance of science from a national point of view. 

 In a free country the public purse is controlled by the people them- 

 selves, and it is self-evident that the most likely way to impress them 

 with the importance of science is to disseminate among them a know- 

 ledge of its facts and principles. A sound and liberal jjopular scien- 

 tific education is indeed the only way to ensure an enlightened pub- 

 lic support of scientific institutions and a proper public recognition of 

 the claims of scientific investigators. 



A great scientific discoverer is an expensive product. As thou- 

 sands of eggs are laid for evexy trout that arrives at maturity, so it 

 takes a thousand embryo philosophers to produce one Newton. It is 

 well, then, that public attention should be directed to science in order 

 to incite promising youths to acquire a scientific training, and thus 

 qualify themselves to follow scientific pursuits. 



These then, I take it, are the objects and functions of a scientific 

 association : — 



1. To publish transactions; 



2. To afford opportunity for intercourse among scientific men, and 



3. To assist in the diffusion of scientific knowledge among the 

 people at large. 



How may they best be accomplished 1 



With regard to the first I have nothing to say. The form of the 

 transactions must be left to the exigencies of each individual case. 



As for the third head, viz., the diff'usion of scientific knowledge, 

 there are two ways in which it seems to me that a scientific society 

 can promote this object : — 



First, the very existence of an active society of this kind in a 

 community is a kind of scientific mission continually winning con- 

 verts to the cause of scientific study, and inciting them by precept 

 and example to keep themselves abreast with advancement of know- 

 ledge. By reading papers and by discussion scientific culture is 

 promoted among the members, and by a library and reading room 



