12 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS. 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
HAMILTON SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION, SESSION 1902-1903. 
BY J. M. DICKSON, PRESIDENT. 
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: 
I thank you for your presence here to-night, the more because 
you have known beforehand that an address would be inflicted 
upon you, and as a slight appreciation of your self-denial I will 
endeavor to make the term of punishment as short as possible. 
I desire to thank my colleagues, the members of the Associa- 
tion, for the honor they have conferred, the honor of appearing 
before you in the office of President. I have accepted this posi- 
tion with some fears for the welfare of the society, fully recog- 
nizing my inability to perform, in a satisfactory manner, all of 
the varied duties which such an undertaking must demand, and 
this feeling is strengthened when I look back and read the 
names of talented and scholarly men who have hitherto occu- 
pied the chair. It is my regrettable duty to recount the losses 
which our Association has recently sustained in the deaths of 
Mr. A. E. Walker, a valued member; Dr. Reynolds, who two 
years ago occupied the presidential chair; and Dr. Stratton, a 
former secretary. We pause at the threshold over which they 
have passed and turn again our wistful gaze from their departed 
forms to the work which they have left us to carry on, feeling 
that their influence and the results of their labors will ever re- 
main to encourage and inspire us to better and to higher 
achievements. 
To those who are unacquainted with its workings, I may say 
that the Hamilton Association was founded in 1857, its object 
being the advancement of science, art and literature. I need 
scarcely ask if science has advanced during intervening years, 
but I may pertinently inquire do-we realize the gigantic strides 
it has taken. ‘The wonderful achievements in electricity, chem- 
istry, bacteriology, surgery, optics, and many other lines are al-- 
