V 
PREFACE. 
mHE Tenth Volume of the Journal of the Transactions of 
the Victoria Institute is now issued ; and the best 
thanks of the Members and Associates are due to the writers 
of the Papers it contains. 
It is satisfactory to find the undiminished interest taken in 
the welfare of the Society by those who, at home and abroad, 
become its Members and Associates ;* for with them rests, in 
no small degree, the future of the Victoria Institute and the 
accomplishment of its objects. 
The Institute has ever urged the value of accurate inquiry, 
rather than conjecture, in the work of elucidating scientific 
* Let me offer my congratulations to the Society on its present position 
and prospects, and on the increasing consideration and respect with which 
its operations are regarded by men capable of judging. It has attracted to 
itself representatives in the various departments of science, well capable 
of defending the faith from the attacks of scientific scepticism, and standing 
so high in their several departments of science or literature, that their 
opinions must be received with attention and respect. No one also could, 
I conceive, deny that the philosophical character of the Society has been 
most severely maintained in all its papers and discussions, and that every 
theory opposed to the belief of the ordinary Christian philosopher has 
been treated with the most scrupulous fairness and respect. Personalities 
have been altogether avoided, and an example has been set of the proper 
way of conducting such controversies, which will, we may presume, have 
considerable influence for the avoiding of bitterne-s and unfairness for the 
future. (Rad cliff e Observer's Address, 1875.) 
