Sir John William Daivson. — Ami. 5 
of isolation. * * * Again means are lacking for the ade- 
quate publication of results. Transactions are published by 
some of the local societies, but the resources at the disposal 
of these bodies are altogether inadequate, and for anything ex- 
tensive or costly, we have to seek means of publication abroad: 
but this can be secured only under special circumstances ; and 
while the public results of Canadian science become so widely 
scattered as to be accessible with difficulty, much that would 
be of scientific value fails of adequate publication, more espe- 
cially in the matter of illustrations. * * * Should this 
society have sufficient means placed at its disposal, to publish 
transactions equal in — I shall not say to those of the Royal 
Society of London — or the Smithsonian Institution at Wash- 
ington — but to those of such bodies as the Philadelphia Acad- 
t'my or the Boston Society of Natural History, an incalculable 
stimulus would be given to science in Canada, by promoting 
research, by securing to this country the credit of the work 
done in it, by collecting the information now widely scattered, 
and by enabling scientific men abroad to learn what is being 
done here." 
In the same year he was elected president of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, which body met 
in the city of Montreal, under the aegis of McGill University. 
It was in 1882 that the Peter Redpath museum of McGill Uni- 
versity was inaugurated. The collections which adorn the main 
floors and galleries of this munificent gift of the man whose 
name it bears, were for the most part the result of personal 
labours and endeavours on the part of Sir William himself. By 
dint of constant collecting wherever he went and a regular 
system of exchange by means of which he not only enriched 
the cabinets at McGill, but also made known Canada's geolo- 
gical resources to the world of science abroad, he obtained a 
vast quantity of material which is now exhibited in the Peter 
Redpath Museum. 
In 1884 he was instrumental in bringing the British Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science to Canada, and two 
years later, he received the high distinction of president of that 
association. In 1893 he was elected fellow of the Geological 
Society of America, and in the same year he retired from the 
principalship of McGill University and was appointed emeritus 
