474 AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION. 



The opening meeting was graced by proceedings of a cordial and hearty genial- 

 ity, well suited to the occasion. His Excellency, Sir William Eyre, the Adminis- 

 trator of the C4overnmenfc, occupied the right hand of the chair. The lamented 

 death of the President elect, Professor Bailey, devolved the inaugural duties on 

 the Vice-President, Professor Caswell ; and his graceful urbanity, ready tact, and 

 conciliatory equanimity, were felt not only on this occasion, but throughout the 

 meeting, to contribute not a little to the uninterrupted harmony which constituted 

 one of the chief elements of its success. Professor Hall, of Albany, the retiring 

 President, having introduced Professor Caswell, resigned the chair to him ; and the 

 new President thereupon proceeded to address the members of the Association, 

 congratulating them on the large attendance, and the happy circumstances under 

 which they there met. " It augurs well for the interests of Science," he observed, 

 " that so many have come here to place their choicest contributions on her altar, 

 and to welcome to her fellowship the humblest laborer in her cause. I think also, 

 that it is a matter of congratulation that we have met beyond the limits of the 

 United States. However it may have been in former times, it is not now the case 

 that : — 



" Lands intersected by a narrow frith 



Abhor each other; or mountains interposed - 



Make enemies of nations." 



It is one of the felicities of our time, that in the onward march of Science, little 

 account is taken of the boundaries that separate states and kingdoms. The dis- 

 coverer of a new law or priuciple in nature, of a new process in the arts, or a new 

 instrument of research, is speedily heralded over land and ocean ; is wel- 

 comed as the benefactor of his race ; and is immediately put into communication 

 with the whole civilized world. We have before us a practical illustration of the 

 amenities of science. We of the United States are here convened on British soil, 

 little thinking that we have passed the boundary of the protection of American 

 law, or that amidst the generous hospitality of this enterprising commercial capital 

 of a noble Province of Great Britain, we are aliens to the British constitution. 

 We have left the American eagle, but we feel in no danger of being harmed by 

 the British lion. I have said ihat we ate aliens to the British constitution ; but 

 that must be taken in the narrowest and most technical sense, for I am proud to 

 say, on deliberate conviction, that nothing is alien to the British constitution that 

 looks to the perfection of knowledge, to the furtherance of the arts or the amelior- 

 ation of the condition of humanity. And, further, the proudest achievements of 

 British arms, — and they have been proud enough for the highest desires of ambi- 

 tion or of glory, — have been less glorious than that generous patronage of science, 

 that success iu the arts, and those efforts to improve the condition of our race, 

 which have placed Old England in the van of the nations ; and at no period of 

 her long history has that patronage been more wisely directed, or those noble 

 efforts more earnestly persevered in, than under the reign of the present illustrious 

 sovereign, whose virtues are alike the ornament of her sex and her crown." 



Addresses of welcome were then delivered by His Excellency, the Administrator 

 of the Government, on behalf of the Province; by Sir William Logan, for the 

 Local Committee and the citizens of Montreal ; and by Dr. Dawson, the Principal 

 of McGill College, as President of the Natural History Society. 



To those who are familiar with the recognised sectional divisions which so largely 

 contribute alike to the interest and the efficiency of the British Association, the 



