.TrxE 1-J, 1S95.] 



SCIENCE. 



653 



SCJEXCE IX CAXADA. 



THE CAXADIAX ROYAL SOCIETY'S ANNUAL 



MEETING . 



The annual meeting of the Royal Society 

 of Canada opened at Ottawa on the 14th 

 nit. and closed on the 17th. Mr. J. M. Le 

 Moine, the well known historian and friend 

 of Parkman. presided. This institution, 

 which was founded in 1SS2 by the Marquis 

 of Lome, then Governor-General of Can- 

 ada, consists of four sections, of which two 

 are entirely scientific — the third being de- 

 voted to the mathematical, physical and 

 chemical sciences ; the fourth to the geo- 

 logical and biological sciences. The first 

 and second have also a scientific element, 

 for though nominally set apart for English 

 and French literature, respectively, they 

 admit, under the head of archa?ologj' a 

 class of subjects that are not unrelated to 

 important branches of science. During the 

 recent session, for instance, three papers ol' 

 a scientific character were presented in the 

 second section : • The present position of 

 American Anthropology,' bj' Professor John 

 Campbell, LL. D., of Montreal ; 'Religion 

 and Aerolites," by Mr. Arthur Harvey; and 

 •An Iro([Uois Condoling Council,' by the 

 venerable ethnologist, Mr. Horatio Hale. 

 Those mIio are acquainted with Mr. Hale's 

 excellent monogi-.iph, -The Iroquois Book of 

 Rites.' in Dr. Brintou's ' Library of Abo- 

 riginal American Literature,' will not be en- 

 tire strangere to the subject of Mr. Hale's 

 paper. 



Of the papers of the scientific sections, 

 the first read in Section 3 was the presiden- 

 tial address of Dr. Harrington (McGill Col- 

 lege), which dealt with a subject of consid- 

 erable interest. Professor Harrington urged 

 the necessitj' of using absolutely pure ma- 

 terials in chemical operations where the ob- 

 ject was to establish formulje. The address, 

 which was illustrated by abundant exam- 

 l)les. gave rise to an interesting discussion, 

 in which Mr. T. Macfarlane, chief analyst 



of the Dominion ; Professor Goodwin, of 

 Kingston, Ont., and Dr. Ells, of Toronto, 

 took part. Professor Harrington also read 

 a paper on ' The Chemical Composition of 

 Andradite from two localities in Ontario.' 

 It gave the results of the examination of a 

 black garnet, occurring in association with 

 the magnetic iron ore of the Paxton mine, 

 Lutterworth, Out., and of a bro^\■n andra- 

 dite present in the nepheliue syenite of 

 Dungaunon, Ont. Of these andradites the 

 former was found to be free from titanium, 

 the latter to be titaniferous. 



Other papers read in Section 3 were the 

 following : 'A short essay on an attempt to 

 measure the relative easterly and westerly 

 transmission lines through an Atlantic ca- 

 ble,' by Professor C. H. McLeod (McGill 

 College); ' On the estimation of Starch,' by 

 Mr. Thos. Macfarlane. Ottawa ; • Viscosity 

 in Liquids and Instruments for its Jleasur- 

 ment,' by Mr. Anthony McGill ; ' Periodi- 

 city of Aerolites,' by Mr. Arthur Harvey, 

 Toronto ; ' On Some Applications of De 

 Moivre's Formuhe,' by Professor F. N. 

 Dupuis, Queen's College, Kingston, Ont.; 

 ' On the Hypotheses of Djniamics,' by Pro- 

 fessor McGregor, of Dalhousie College, Hali- 

 fax. In a former paper Professor McGregor 

 had tried to exj>ress the ordinary hypotheses 

 employed in dynamics in a form suited to 

 the conception of bodies as consisting of 

 particles acting upon one another at a dis- 

 tance. In the later paper he endeavors to 

 express those hypotheses in a form suited 

 to the conception of bodies and intervening 

 media, as consisting of parts which act 

 directly on one another only across sur- 

 faces of contact. 



In the -Ith Section Sir J. William Daw- 

 son, of Montreal, read a ' Note on Tertiary 

 Fossil Plants from the vicinity of the City 

 of Vancouver, B. C This important 

 paper related to a series of beds holding 

 lignite and vegetable fo.ssils and estimated 

 at 3,000 feet or more in thickness and oc- 



