98 the president's address. 



Of the difficulties and discouragements with which the first pro- 

 moters of the Society had to contend, some idea may be formed from 

 a sketch given in one of the early numbers of the Journal, of 

 the history of the Association, in which the writer, after alluding 

 to the various disheartening circumstances attending their first ef- 

 forts, goes on to describe the attendance at the monthly meetings, 

 as having at last "dwindled down to two" and "the prospects of 

 the young Institute as being gloomy in the extreme." 



How these prospects have brightened since that period of despon- 

 dency, is, perhaps, best attested by the numerous assemblage we 

 now see drawn together here at every weekly meeting, and amongst 

 them I trust are still to be found the never-to-be-forgotten Two, 

 whose names ought certainly to be had in honor by all who wish well 

 to our Society. 



The year 1851 may properly be looked upon as the period from 

 which the Canadian Institute, as at present constituted, dates the 

 commencement of its existence. 



It was in that year that the first steps were taken to divest the 

 Society of the strictly professional character it had assumed on its 

 first establishment, and which, by giving a wider scope to its opera- 

 tions, and inviting the co-operation of all interested in scientific and 

 literary pursuits, secured an amount of support and sympathy it 

 could never otherwise have obtained. 



In May, of the same year, the first Conversazione was held, and in 

 the following November the Royal Charter of Incorporation was 

 granted : and by it the gentleman whose scientific labors, more espe- 

 cially upon a very recent occasion, have contributed to make Canada 

 most widely and favorably known — "W. E. Logan, Esq. — was appointed 

 first President of the incorporated body. But the Society, although 

 thus regularly organized, was still, as it were, without a mouth-piece. 

 It possessed no accredited organ to record its proceedings, or serve as 

 the medium of publication for those papers which were read before 

 the Society from time to time. In August, 1852, that want was 

 supplied by the issue of the first number of the Canadian Journal, 

 a publication which, it may be safely averred, has assisted most mate- 

 rially to keep alive an interest in the Society's proceedings, contri- 

 buted to make it widely and favorably known throughout the Pro- 

 vince, and attracted the support of many living at a distance, who, 

 but for it, would in all probability never have become members of 

 the Institute. 



Indeed from the period of the re-establishment of the Journal may 



