270 
There is, in all probability, nothing that 
will tend more to advance those interests 
than the diffusion of science in all parts of 
the British Empire, and it is towards this 
end that the aspirations of the British As- 
sociation are ever directed, even if in many 
instances the aim may not be attained. 
Weare, as already mentioned, indebted 
to Canada for previous hospitality, but we 
must also remember that, since the time 
when we last assembled on this side of the 
Atlantic, the Dominion has provided the 
Association with a President, Sir William 
Dawson, whose name is alike well-known 
in Britain and America, and whose repu- 
tation is indeed world-wide. We rejoice 
that we have still among us the pioneer of 
American geology, who, among other dis- 
coveries, first made us acquainted with the 
‘Air-breathers of the Coal,’ the terrestrial, 
or, more properly, arboreal, Saurians of the 
New Brunswick and Nova Scotia coal- 
measures. 
On our last visit to Canada, in 1884, our 
place of assembly was Montreal, a city 
which is justly proud of her McGill Univer- 
sity ; to-day we meet within the buildings 
of another of the universities of this vast 
Dominion, and in a city the absolute fitness 
of which for such a purpose must have been 
foreseen by the native Indian tribes when 
they gave to a small aggregation of huts 
upon this spot the name of Toronto— the 
place of meetings.’ 
Our gathering this year presents a feature 
of entire novelty and extreme interest, 
inasmuch as the sister Association of the 
United States of America—still mourning 
the loss of her illustrious President, Profes- 
sor Cope—and some other learned societies 
have made special arrangements to allow of 
their members coming here to join us. I 
need hardly say how welcome their pres- 
ence is, nor how gladly we look forward to 
their taking part in our discussions and 
aiding us by interchange of thought. To 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Von. VI. No. 138, 
such a meeting the term ‘international’ 
seems almost misapplied. It may rather 
be described as a family gathering, in 
which our relatives more or less distant 
in blood, but still intimately connected 
with us by language, literature and habits 
of thought, have spontaneously arranged to 
take part. 
The domain of science is no doubt one in 
which the various nations of the civilized 
world meet upon equal terms, and for 
which no other passport is required than 
some evidence of haying striven towards 
the advancement of natural knowledge. 
Here, on the frontier between the two 
great English-speaking nations of the 
world, who is there that does not in- 
wardly feel that anything which conduces 
to an intimacy between the representa- 
tives of two countries, both of them ac- 
tively engaged in the pursuit of science, 
may also, through such an intimacy, react 
on the affairs of daily life, and aid in pre- 
serving those cordial relations that have 
now for so many years existed between 
the great American Republic and the 
British Islands, with which her early 
foundations are indissolubly connected ? 
The present year has witnessed an inter- 
change of courtesies which has excited 
the warmest feelings of approbation on 
both sides of the Atlantic. I mean the 
return, to its proper custodians, of one of 
the most interesting of the relics of the 
Pilgrim Fathers, the Log of the ‘May- 
flower.’ May this return, trifling in it- 
self, be of happy augury as testifying to 
the feelings of mutual regard and esteem 
which animate the hearts both of the 
donors and of the recipients ! 
At our meeting in Montreal the Presi- 
dent was an investigator who had already 
attained to a foremost place in the domains 
of physics and mathematics, Lord Ray- 
leigh. In his address he dealt mainly 
with topics, such as Light, Heat, Sound 
