ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 3 
scientific facts which may come within the range of their observa- 
tion, or which can be collected from scientific literature in a form 
to enliven our meetings, and to make them at the same time both _ 
attractive and instructive. 
In order, then, to keep alive an interest in all the higher 
branches of science, we must not allow to pass unheeded the 
great discoveries and expansions of thought which characterize 
the age in which we live, and which in Europe as well as in 
America are traversing the realms of nature at greater depths 
than have hitherto been sounded, and continually stirring up 
to greater efforts the inquiring intellects of the master-minds — 
of the present generation. In pursuance of this view, I propose 
to lay before you to-night a slight sketch of the progress of 
science during the past year, in those phases of it which will 
interest not scientific men only, but all who regard with general 
interest the investigations and di ies which mark the stirring 
times in which our lot is cast. 
Foremost, I think, in point of interest is the Telephone of Pro- 
fessor Graham Bell, which may be claimed as a British invention. 
Mr. Bell, a native of Edinburgh, originated the idea whilst 
enaged in the work of teaching the deaf and dumb to speak, in 
Boston, United States. His researches began with the produc- 
tion of musical sounds by means of electrical telephony. It is 
generally supposed that the dumb are mute because they are 
_ deaf, and that when they know how to regulate the action of 
their vocal organs they can articulate with comparative facility. 
In his attempts to perfect his system of teaching it occurred to 
Mr. Bell that if, instead of presenting to the eye of his pupils a 
system of symbols, he could make visible the vibrations of the 
air, a great step would be gained in teaching them to articulate. 
To this end Mr. Bell directed all his energies. Employing appa- 
ratus by which he had been producing undulatory currents of 
electricity for the purpose of multiple telegraphy, Mr. Bell — 
attached a rod loosely by one extremity to the uncovered pole of 
& magnet, and fastened the other extremity to the centre of a 
