1874-75] 



WINTER SESSION. 



Note. — The Authors of the various papers, of which abstracts are here 

 appended, are alone responsible for the views expressed in them. 



The opening meeting of the Session was held on 18th November. 

 After some preliminary remarks, the President, Rev. William 

 MacIlwaine, D.D., proceeded to deliver the following address : 



Ladies and Gentlemen, 



Anniversaries, such as that which at this moment affords me the 

 privilege of addressing you. are essentially occurrences of a sug- 

 gestive character. The moralist, as one year gives place to another, 

 reads in the falling leaves of autumn and the clouded sunsets of 

 winter lessons of value and interest in his department which he is 

 not slow to learn for himself, and to impart to others. The anni- 

 versary of the community or of the household is equally suggestive ; 

 nor should that of such an Institution as our own be allowed to pass 

 without note, and that for similar reasons to those which lead others 

 to utilise its advent. My own idea respecting the opening meeting 

 of any Scientific Institution, on such occasions as this, is that it 

 should present to those assembled a sort of review and summary 

 in that special department of Science or Literature which comes 

 more immediately within its range. Adopting this view of the year 



