-017^1 Snri^tiT 0f ^irtnria. 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 



Delivered by Professor W. C. Kernot, M.A., C.E., December 9th, 1887, 



It would ill befit the President of a Society bearing the 

 title " Royal," to commence his Annual Address in the 

 present year, without reference to the great event that has 

 marked it, the jubilee of the reign of Her Majesty Queen 

 Victoria. The period of fifty years extending from a.d. 1337 

 to A.D. 1887, has not only been marked by the reign of one 

 of the worthiest sovereigns that ever filled the British throne, 

 but also has been characterised by such unprecedented 

 activity in all branches of scientific investigation, and such 

 an amount of progress in the practical application of scientific 

 results, as to become unique in the history of the world. 



Surrounded as we are every day by the outcome of 

 all this intellectual labour, we are apt to take our railways 

 and steamships, our tramways and telegraphs as a matter 

 of course, and to forget that the world went on its way for 

 many thousands of years without the aid of any of these 

 modern appliances of civilisation. 



In order to realise the magnitude of the chancres that 

 have taken place during the present reign, let us turn 

 our attention to the state of the phj^sical sciences and their 

 applications at the date when the young Princess Victoria 

 suddenly found herself in possession of the British crown, 

 and contrast it with what we see around us at the present 

 moment. 



Unquestionably, the most remarkable advance; and the 

 one calculated to have the profoundest effect upon the 

 human race, is the establishment of the great telegraphic 

 system which at present encloses the whole earth in its 

 network of wires, that like the nerves of the human body, 

 convey intelligence almost instantaneously to the most 

 distant parts. Fifty years ago, this had no existence what- 

 ever. An excellent Encyclopaedia published as late as 184^1, 



A 



