xxviii proceedings 



Presidential Address 1924-5 



S. G. Ritchie, B. A., D. M. D., Professor of Dental Anatomy 



and Comparative Dental Anatomy and Prosthetic 



Dentistry, University of Dalhousie, 



Halifax, N. S. 



{Read 14 Oct. 1925) 



The 63rd year of existence of the Nova Scotian Institute of 

 Science has passed into history and it may be of interest to the 

 present members to give a brief historical sketch of the Institution 

 so that by comparison with the past we may the better realize 

 what progress is being made in the present. In making this 

 retrospect I find I have been anticipated by Mr. Harry Piers 

 who at the 50th anniversary of the Institute in 1912 presented a 

 very interesting and complete history of its membership and 

 activities up to that year. It is to this monograph that I am 

 indebted for most of the information herein. 



Mr. Piers tells us that the study of Natural Science in Nova 

 Scotia was well under way by individual workers as early as the 

 year 1800, when Titus Smith, known as the Dutch Village 

 Philosopher, was a botanist and naturalist of note. Other 

 early workers were the Rev. Thomas MacCullouch, D. D., 

 ornithologist, first principal of Pictou Academy 1816-1837 and 

 principal of Dalhousie College, 1837. Abraham Gesner, M. D., 

 F. G. S. geologist and mineralogist, author of "Remarks on the 

 Geology and Mineralogy of Nova Scotia," a rather rare book at 

 this time. There were others, too, William Bennett Webster, 

 M. D., M. P. P. mineralogist; Richard Brown, geologist and 

 mining engineer, and Sir William Dawson whose fame is inter- 

 national. 



In 1813 a Mechanics' Institute was formed in Halifax. This 

 was a literary and scientific organization meeting once a week 

 during the sessions. It became very popular, but in the 50's 

 interest began to wane, and about 1860 it became more or less 

 dormant, and then defunct. In 1868 the collection of specimens 



