ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. Ill 



but a sorrowful task still awaits me, viz., to notice that, during 

 the past year, we have had to lament the decease of three of our 

 most zealous and useful members, and very good friends. You 

 will find obituary notices of them in the published Transactions. 

 It is again a painful duty imposed upon me to mention a fourth 

 bereavement in the death of Dr. How, Professor of Chemistry, 

 King's College, Windsor (not latterly a member of our Institute, 

 but a frequent contributor to its Transactions), which took place 

 at Windsor on the 27th September last. Dr How was an able 

 scientist, and had made some interesting mineralogical discover- 

 ies in Nova Scotia. He filled the professorial chair with credit 

 to himself and the University, and with much advantage to the 

 students, by whom he will long be remembered, and his death 

 regretted. His loss must be deeply felt by the Institution at 

 Windsor, which he adorned by his talents and amenities ; and it 

 will not be easy to fill a chair, the duties of which require in an 

 eminent degree high qualifications and systematic order. 



I have now, amid avocations which leave me little leisure for 

 work like this, endeavored (imperfectly enough, I know) to per- 

 form a duty prescribed by the rules of the Institute. I fear I 

 have wearied you with an address which, like many others of 

 the kind, on similar occasions, has not the merit of propounding 

 startling hypotheses or original theories. It may, however, serve 

 to show that we are in earnest, and if it has the slightest effect 

 in stimulating pursuits and studies within our reach, it will fulfil 

 my highest expectations. I would have liked to be able to tell 

 you that our people take as much interest in natural science — 

 comparatively, of course — as the people of England do in the 

 work of the British Association, or that the knowledge of Nova 

 Scotia we have conveyed, which is by no means unimportant, is 

 as highly appreciated among ourselves in this our own home, as 

 it seems to be in other countries. This desire, however, is pre- 

 mature, and many of us may not await the better time coming. 

 Instead, we must, I suppose, rest content with being the pioneers 

 of science in Nova Scotia, and leave it to future generations to 

 enter into and profit by our gratuitous and disinterested labors. 



