4 Opening Address. 



the advancement of art and science with an energy adequate to 

 meet the requirements of the times. 



The first idea of learned societies is helieved to have originated 

 with the illustrious Bacon, who depicted a scheme to establish a 

 society for the maintenance and promotion of science in a philo- 

 sophical romance entitled " The New Atlantis.'''' It appears, how- 

 ever, that the first learned society actually founded in London 

 was by Archbishop Parker, in 1572, for the preservation of ancient 

 documents. 



G-reat things grow out of small beginnings. In the year 1600, 

 a few gentlemen including such names as Boyle, Evelyn, Hook, 

 and Cowley, used to meet together at the Bull's Head Tavern, 

 Cheapside, London, partly to study science for its own sake, and 

 also to avoid the distraction of civil war. From such a small 

 begiuning sprang the Boyal Society of London — a society whose 

 reputation, influence, and usefulness, is co-extensive with the 

 limits of science. 



It is curious to learn from the history of this society the subj- 

 ects which were discussed by men of renowned genius, and sin- 

 cerely earnest in the pursuit of practical knowledge. We find 

 discussed such subjects as witchcraft, the virtue of the divining 

 rod, and the touching for the evil. On the other hand, we learn 

 that pendulum experiments were introduced by Sir Christopher 

 Wren ; the air-pump, by Boyle ; and certain experiments to de- 

 termine the weight of the atmosphere at different heights above 

 fie earth's surface. Of so much practical value was the society 

 considered, that during the first century of its establishment there 

 was a law enacted that all new inventions, mechanical or other- 

 wise, should be approved by it before a patent was granted. 



The Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society were first 

 published in 1664. Some of the papers are singularly worded. 

 There are papers on " Optick Glasses at Borne ; Observations on 

 Jupiter; Endeavours towards a History of Cold; to find the 

 Longitude by Clock Machinery ; and a relation of a very odd 

 monstrous Calf." In 1865 we find a paper on "The transfusion 

 of Blood from one living animal to another" ; but it need hardly 

 be observed that the principle of vital energy was not to be re- 

 stored on such easy terms. 



