]28 ' Presidenfs Address 



Chemists have been, as usual, very active. The new 

 metals with which spectrum-analysis has made us acquainted 

 have been fully investigated, and various sources from 

 which they can be obtained have been discovered. The new 

 method of Mr. Crookes, of increasing the amalgamating 

 power of mercury by the use of the metal sodium, has been 

 rendered much more complete, and stripped of many of the 

 objections which at first attended it. The priority )f using 

 sodium for this purpose seems, however, to have another 

 claimant, a Mr. Wurtz, who, according to American au- 

 thorities, was the first to use it. 



Graham's theory of the diffusion of gases has been 

 applied most beneficially to practical purposes. Instruments, 

 not unlike aneroid barometers, are now constructed on 

 principles first indicated by this great investigator, by which 

 the presence of firedamp in collieries can be at once 

 detected, and thus its dangerous effects provided against. 



The most remarkable fact in the progress of geology 

 in the western world seems to be Mr. W. Logan's 

 discovery of a fossil zoophyte, of the order of Foraminifera, 

 in rocks hitherto considered to have been azoic or devoid of 

 life remains, being, geologically speaking, older than our 

 Silurian and Cambrian formations, which have always been 

 looked upon as the oldest of our sedimentary rocks. The 

 fossil alluded to, is called the Eozoon Canadense, and was 

 found in what are known to geologists as the Laurentian 

 rocks of Canada. 



The discovery of flint and other instruments, undoubtedly 

 the work of man, in the drifts and in limestone caves, 

 indicates to geologists the existence of the human race 

 further back into time than our history reaches. These 

 discoveries have been made in many parts of Europe and 

 in the East. The implements are chiefly of flint or stone, 

 and have frequently been found associated with the remains 



