42 H. G. SMITH. 
stimulated to activity in the cause of Australian scientific 
progress, and whose ambition shall be to assist in the 
accumulation and arrangement of the scientific facts thus 
obtained, so that those deeper chemical and physiological 
reactions underlying the persistence of these natural forms 
may be brought to light and profitably utilised. 
NAPIER COMMEMORATIVE LECTURE. 
THE DISCOVERY OF LOGARITHMS BY NAPIER 
OF MERCHISTON. 
By Professor H. 8. CARSLAW, Sc.D. 
Delivered before the Royal Society of New South Wales at a Special Meeting 
held on May 21st, 1914, in celebration of the Tercentenary of the publica- 
tion of the Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio. 
The subject of our lecture to-night is the Discovery of 
Logarithms by Napier of Merchiston. This event was 
announced in his book, Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis 
Descriptio, published in Edinburgh in 1614. Except for 
the Canon or Table of. Logarithms, it is written in Latin. 
To quote from the title in the English Hdition of 1616, it 
contains A Description of the Admirable Table of Loga- 
rithmes: with a declaration of the most plentiful, easy 
and speedy use thereof in both kindes of Trigonometrie 
as also in all Mathematicall calculations. This year, in 
many different countries, the ter-centenary of Napier’s 
great discovery is being celebrated. The Royal Society of 
New South Wales joins in these celebrations, and I regard 
it as a great privilege that I have been invited to pay our 
tribute to the memory of a man whose service to the science 
