100 THE president's ADDRESS. 



wooden structure in wMch its operations were formerly conducted, 

 by handsome and substantial erections of stone. It may fairly be 

 allowed to the members of this Institute to indulga the belief that 

 these desirable results were effected, in part at least, by the urgent 

 representations which they and their President at the time made to 

 the G-overnment ; nor will the pardonable pride they may feel in the 

 matter be lessened by the knowledge that, out of all the Colonial 

 Observatories which were in similar circumstances, this is the only one 

 the retention of which has been accomplished. The outlay on the 

 Observatory for its erection and equipment from first to last has pro- 

 bably exceeded £5,000, and I believe that in completeness and effici- 

 ency it is not surpassed, if even equalled, by any observatories in the 

 world. Three large quarto volumes, containing the observations made 

 here, have already been published by the Imperial authorities (and a 

 fourth is yet due), carrying the name of Toronto into all parts of the 

 earth where science is cultivated ; and so remarkable and valuable have 

 been the theoretical results deduced from them (to which I shall pre- 

 sently more particularly allude,) that it is not too much to say that 

 the name of a Canadian city, which will be sought for in vain on maps 

 twenty years old, has now become, by means of its Observatory, fam- 

 iliar in the mouths of European savans as a " household word." 



Very few, if any, subjects of inquiry are of greater iaterest and 

 probable importance to science, than that of terrestrial magnetism. 

 Practically familiar, as we have been, for a long course of years, 

 with many of its phenomena, the theories invented to account for 

 and to explain them were more owing, as has been well remarked, 

 " to the boldness of ignorance than to the just confidence of know- 

 ledge ;" and the "want of a foundation whereon the advance- 

 ment of that science, on inductive principles, might be based, was 

 strongly and extensively felt." 



The objects of the Magnetic Observatories were, as I undei'stand, 

 to investigate the periodical variations in the terrestrial magnetic 

 force, by suitable instruments and methods ; to separate each from 

 the others, and to seek its period, its epochs of maximum and min- 

 imum, the laws of its progression, and its mean numerical value 

 and amount ; that, by a combination of the results attained, a 

 general theory of each, at least of the principal periodical varia- 

 tions, might be derived ; and tests be thus supplied, whereby the 

 truth of physical theories propounded for their explanation might 

 be examined. With the observation of their periodical variations, 

 was combined a comparison with meteorological variations of a 



