36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE CANADIAN INSTITUTE. 



an opportunity is given them to acquaint themselves vs^ith what has 

 been done and what is doing in all departments of science. 



Secondly, an important method of attaining this object is by 

 means of public lectures upon scientific subjects delivered by com- 

 petent persons. 



These lectures should be suited to a popular audience, in so far 

 that they should assume no profound knowledge of the subject on 

 the part of the audience, " and hence should avoid unexplained 

 technicalities. But they should not be " popular " in the sense 

 alluded to previously, of conforming to the (generally erroneously) 

 supposed popular taste for the sensational and the trifling to the 

 exclusion of the useful and. the solid. 



A popular scientific lecture, which is really popular and really 

 scientific, is an excellen^^ thing, and well deserving the encourage- 

 ment of a Learned Society. 



Intercourse among the members is promoted formally by papeis 

 and discussions, and informally by afibrding a common meeting place 

 and common interest for those engaged in scientific pursuits. 



Much of the value of a society from this point of view will depend 

 upon the interest shewn at its meetings and the character of the 

 papers read. And here a society of general scope, such as our own, 

 is placed at a marked disadvantage as compared with one which 

 addresses itself to the cultivation of a special branch of science. 



The reader of a paper before a mixed audience, such as the mem- 

 bers of such a society, is placed between the horns of a dilemma. 

 He must either adapt liis discourse to the audience generally, and 

 thereby make himself tedious to those whom he particularly wishes 

 to interest, while he will be compelled to omit much of what would 

 be of special value to those who understand the siibject of his paper. 

 Or he must address himself to those who have made his department 

 ot science their peculiar study, and thereby render himself unintelli- 

 gible to nine-tenths of his audience. 



There are a hundred little points of detail which are of the keenest 

 interest to those actually working in any branch of science but which 

 are not the slightest consequence to anyone else. The discussion of 

 such points as these gives life and interest to a meeting of specialists, 

 which can not be attained elsewhere. From these and similar con- 

 siderations, as well as from the mere demands of time and space, the 

 various special societies haA^e in England come to monopolize the 



