﻿402 Canadian, Record of Science, 



mean the return to its proper custodians of one of 

 the most interesting of the relics of the Pilgrim Fathers, 

 the Log of the May Flower. May this return, trifling in 

 itself, be of happy augury as testifying to the feelings 

 of mutual regard and esteem which animate the hearts 

 Ijoth of the donors and of the recipients ! 



At our meeting in Montreal the President was an 

 investigator who had already attained to a foremost place 

 in the domains of Physics and Mathematics, Lord 

 Eayleigh. In his address he dealt mainly with topics 

 such as Light, Heat, Sound and Electricity, on which he is 

 one of our principal authorities. His name and that 

 of his fellow-worker, Professor Eamsay, are now and will 

 in all future ages be associated with the discovery of the 

 new element, Argon. Of the ingenious methods by 

 which that discovery was made, and the existence of 

 Argon established, this is not the place to speak. One 

 can only hope that the element will not always continue 

 to justify its name by its continued inertness. 



The claims of such a leader in physical science as Lord 

 Eayleigh to occupy the Presidential chair are self-evident, 

 but possibly those of his successor on this side of the 

 Atlantic are not so immediately apparent. I cannot for 

 a moment pretend to place myself on the same purely 

 scientific level as my distinguished friend and for many 

 years colleague. Lord Eayleigh, and my claims, such as 

 they are, seem to me to rest on entirely different grounds. 



Whatever little I may have indirectly been able to do 

 in assisting to promote the advancement of science, my 

 principal efforts have now for many years been directed 

 towards attempting to forge those links in the history 

 of the world, and especially of humanity, that connect the 

 past with the present, and towards tracing that course of 

 evolution which plays as important a part in the physical 

 and moral development of man as it does in that of 

 the animal and vegetable creation. 



