HISTORICAL ACCOUNT OF INSTITUTE. — PIERS. IxXl 



address, 12th November, 1888). The average yearly number 

 since 1862, has been between ten and eleven; and the average 

 length of each paper, eleven pages. For the first twenty-five 

 years, the average number of papers was about twelve, and 

 the average length, nine pages. 



On 2nd April, 1879, the Institute of Science was honoured 

 by having its then and subsequent presidents made ex-officio 

 Fellows of the Royal Microscopical Societj^, a distinction 

 which our presiding officer still enjoys. 



In the year just mentioned, the Institute deliberated on 

 a collection of supposed rude, prehistoric potter}^ discovered 

 in the water of Grand Lake. The few who had their doubts, 

 were afterwards proved to be right when more careful investi- 

 gation showed that they were merely disk-like concretions 

 of iron and manganese oxides about a nucleus of quartzite! 

 It is one of the very few little episodes of a semi-laughable 

 kind we have to look back to. 



On 5th and 15th October, 1884, a revised constitution 

 and bye-laws were adopted. With the exception of the 

 addi'cion of a curator or librarian to the list of officers, the 

 changes from the older bye-laws and unwritten laws were 

 not material. 



The session of 1888-9 was an epoch-making one in the 

 annals of the society. Dr. James Gordon MacGregor was 

 elected president on 10th October, 1888, and held office till 

 November, 1891. It was a period of regeneration. A month 

 after taking the chair, he gave a masterh* address on the 

 Institute's afi^airs — the first of the regular series of annual 

 presidential addresses which we have since had, the older 

 contributions of the kind having been at rare intervals. He 

 carefully analysed the society's history, found that the period 

 of greatest activity was the first few years of its existence, 

 and that since 1867 it had kept oscillating mth an average 

 of about eleven papers a year. The lowest ebb, as has been 

 remarked, was in 1875. About 304 jDapers had been pub- 



