HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF INSTITUTF. — PIERS. lix 



vestigation of our formations and was undoubtedly the 

 incentive which induced Gesner and Webster to devote their 

 leisure to such studies. 



In 1841, Sir William E. Logan made a tour of Nova 

 Scotia, which he described in a paper, and two j^ears later he 

 measured the fine South Joggins section. In 1842, Sir C 

 Charles Lyall came here, and one thing he did was to 

 place our local observers in touch with other workers. He 

 and Logan were the men who encouraged Dawson to take 

 up his life's work.. 



The Halifax Mechanics' Institlti:. 



In tracing what led up to the foundation of the Nova 

 Scotian Institute of Natural Science, we must go back to 

 the time when mechanics' institutes became popular and 

 held their sway for a quarter of a century or more. 



The first Mechanics" Institute, properly so called, w^as 

 organized in Glasgow by George Birkbeck in 1823, being 

 followed in 1824 by that at London. From them soon 

 sprang many others, on a wider basis, the original idea having 

 been merely to teach mechanics the principles of their trades. 

 From these institutes have arisen various technical and 

 other organizations. 



The Halifax Mechanics' Institute was established on 

 27th December, 1831, at a meeting of the shareholders of the 

 Halifax Mechanics' Library. It was affiliated with that 

 organization, which had been established on 17th October 

 of the same year, and all Institute members had to financially 

 support the Library. The Institute's objects were the 

 cultivation and diffusion of knowledge in the arts, sciences, 

 and general literature, and the collection of models, drafts, 

 specimens, books of reference and other materials tending to 

 instruction and improvement*. The original officers were: 

 Dr. William Grigor, president; John Leander Starr and 



* The annual meeting for the election of officers, etc., was held on the last Wednesday of 

 December, until February, 1838, when the date was changed to the first Wednesday in May. 



