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Honorary President--JAMES DAVISON, B.A.
President--R. R. GRAHAM, B.A., B.S.A.
1st Vice-President- LT.-COLONEL D. MCCRA,

2nd Vice-President--J. MCNIECE, B.A.

Secretary-Treasurer--H. WESTOBY.

Recorder--J. W. CHARLESWORTH, B.A.

Council--MRS. J. J. DREW, MISS MARY MILLS, F. A. GRAESSER, PROF. W. H. DAY, M.A.; J. M. TAYLOR, Sr.; WM. LAIDLAW, COL. A. H. MACDONALD. and H. J. B. LEADLAY.

VICTORIA CENTRE

Secretary--G. S. A. CTAVISH.

Honorary President-DR. J. S. PLASKETT, B. A., D.Sc., Victoria, B.C. President--W. S. DREWY, C.E. Vice-President- J. E. UMBACH. Treasurer-J. P. HIBBEN.

Auditor-THOMAS SHOT BOLT.

Council--K. M. CHADWICK, REV. ROBERT CONNELL, A. W. MCCURDY. F. NAPIER DENISON, F. C. GREEN, DR. D. YOUNG and J. B. SHENTON.

MONTREAL CENTRE

President--MGR. C. P. CHOQUETTE, M.A., Lic.Scs.
Vice-President--H. E. S. ASBURY

Secretary-Treasurer--REV. W. T. B. CROMBIE, M.A., B.D.

Council--GEO. SAMPLE, JAMES WEIR, B.Sc.; LT.-COL. R. WILSON, LT.-COL. W. E. LYMAN, B.A.; JOHN CORWAY.

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A Review of Astronomy During 1918 (Presidential Address) A. F. Miller
Andrew Elvins (1823-1918)

Meetings of the Society

81

C. A. Chant

98

At Ottawa

R. M. M.

132

At Victoria

At Winnipeg

Minutes of Annual General Meeting A. F. H. and W. E. W. J.
Notes from the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, Victoria, B.C.
An Interesting Double

Notes from the Meteorological Service

Report of the Weather in Canada, January, 1919
Earthquake Records at Toronto and Victoria, B.C.,

Magnetic Observations, December, 1918

Astronomical Notes

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133

J. S. P.

146

Sir F. S. 148

January, 1919

J. Y.

150

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Upon request, made previous to publication of article, Contributors will be supplied with 50 Reprints in covers free; above that number will be charged at actual cost.

Editorial communications should be addressed to C. A. Chant, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.

Business correspondence, remittances, etc., should be addressed to H. W. Barker, Treasurer of the Society, 198 College Street, Toronto.

Communications regarding Library matters should be addressed to the

Librarian.

$2.00 per annum. Single numbers, 25 cents.

Subscription to the Journal is included in membership fee.

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(PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS AT ANNUAL AT-HOME)

AT the commencement of the year 1918 the prospects for

astronomical progress did not seem very bright. The worldwar which for almost three and a half years had raged with everincreasing fury, was felt to have reached its crisis, yet none could with any degree of certainty foresee an approaching conclusion, or predict the ultimate result of the terrible conflict. The tide of battle wavered now this way, now that. The appalling sacrifice of life, the ruinous destruction of property, grew greater day by day. The pessimistic stood trembling and aghast; the most optimistic had to admit the extreme gravity of the situation. An awful cloud, black and impenetrable, cast a death-shade over the civilized world; the bravest held their breath for a time, for there were moments when none could say what a day might bring forth, Locked in a life-or-death grapple with a foe, the most savage, the most ruthless, civilization has ever been called on to fight, the Entente and their allies were devoting everything, sacrificing everything, to the superhuman task forced upon them, and which

must be accomplished if they were still to live-the winning of the war.

Under such conditions, small wonder is it that astronomical progress should have been greatly hampered and handicapped. Astronomy and astro-physics are branches of science demanding for their prosecution deep and profound thought; and though elevated to the heavens by their studies, astronomers are, after all, only men. The burden of anxiety which oppressed so many. hearts, lay as heavily on theirs. They could hardly be expected to do their best work.

From several sources we learn to what an extent observatory staffs were depleted to meet the call for military engineers, and for scientists competent to work out solutions for the thousands of new problems arising out of war conditions. Above all, astronomers were called on to become instructors in nautical and navigational astronomy, to supply the demand occasioned by the unprecedented growth of the British Navy, and the navies of France and the United States.

At Greenwich and other important English observatories, the workers knew not at what moment death-dealing bombs might be rained down upon them from Zeppelins, whose commanders' main desire was to cause all the havoc and destruction possible. French astronomers in a large part of the territory which had escaped invasion were exposed to even greater perils, for besides the danger from aircraft, every important French city within seventy miles of the German front, was in turn subjected to bomLardment by artillery of unprecedented range: and they knew but too well the fate to which a brutal and inhuman enemy had resolved to devote the historic cities of France, and Paris above all. Who has not seen the medal struck by the Hun when he believed the French capital within his grasp? There is depicted a hideous demon figure bestriding a savage steed, triumphantly waving aloft the all-destroying sword and burning brand as he gloats in fiendish joy over the blazing ruins of Paris, the city so dear to the heart of every Frenchman-as it should be to the heart of every true man, because of the science, the art, the literature, the refinement.

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