362 the president's address. 



proceedings and reports from various bodies in the United -States of 

 America, Mexico, South America, the British Islands, France, Spain, 

 Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Norway, 

 Sweden, India, Australia, and other countries, giving us information 

 as to what the learned world is doing everywhere in all departments of 

 inquiry. These are of great value to the specialist, inasmuch as 

 they enable him to ascertain what other specialists in his department 

 are doing. We are in this way a member of a great federation of 

 learned societies, each of which, as far as practicable, cooperates with 

 all the rest, and whose work, when summed up, amounts in each year 

 to a great total, however insignificant the contributions of individual 

 bodies may be. The existence of these learned societies is one of 

 the marked features of the history of modern times, and both an 

 index of a great advance in civilization, and an augury of still 

 greater progress. 



In addition to encouraging research and the acquisition of know- 

 ledge, we undertake to discharge the related function of receiving 

 and caring for objects of scientific, historical or antiquarian interest. 

 We have already accumulated a considerable collection, which we 

 are now engaged in classifying, and we hope ultimately to have here 

 a museum which will be one of the most interesting sights in the city. 

 We have hitherto been prevented from arranging our material by two 

 causes. Before this building was erected we had no room ; since its 

 erection we have had no money. We now feel able to attempt to 

 devote a little money every year to this purpose; not as much indeed, 

 as we would like, but still some. I know of no object to which one 

 of our wealthy fellow citizens could better devote a legacy of a few 

 thousand dollars, than to the building up of our museum. And there 

 is a pressing need of a good museum somewhere in Ontario, for one 

 reason. There are scattered over this country an immense number of 

 objects of ethnological and archaeological interest, that have recently 

 been obtained from Indian ossuaries which reveal to us the physical 

 character and state of civilization of the aborigines of this country 

 before they came into contact with the white race. Unless some 

 effort is made to prevent it many of the most valuable of these relics 

 will be lost, or destroyed, or carried off to other countries. The 

 Canadian Institute proposes to do what it can to meet this want, and 

 it asks for the hqarty cooperation of all who feel the importance of 

 the work. 



