THE president's ADDRESS. 169 



The human mind begins at once, almost instinctively, to group 

 the objects brought within the range of its perceptions, expressing 

 its classification by the help of language, and inventing new 

 terms and names for things that cannot be designated fittingly 

 by terms already in use ; continuing, in fact, the work that 

 Adam is said to have begun in the Garden of Eden. As time 

 goes on, the progress of discovery necessitates the setting up of 

 more and more of these new names and categories, and it is 

 certain that in the case of the Protista the process is still very 

 far from having been completed, and that much brain-energy 

 is being wasted continually in trying to force new wines into 

 old bottles, which must burst sooner or later. The case of the 

 spirochaetes I have already mentioned ; bacteriologists do not 

 seem to want them, and recent researches on their development 

 by Leishman and others indicate very clearly, in my opinion, 

 that they have nothing to do with the Protozoa. Quite recently 

 a new category has been founded, and given the name Chlamy- 

 dozoa by Prowazek, to include the problematic organisms of small- 

 pox, vaccine, scarlet fever, and a number of other diseases. I 

 am frequently questioned as to the nature of these organisms by 

 my bacteriological friends, who seem very often to think, that if 

 an organism does not come under their department, it must come 

 under mine. I can only say that, from a perusal of the latest 

 writings on these Chlamydozoa, and from a scrutiny of the 

 published illustrations of them, I am by no means prepared to 

 admit them into the fold of which I am an appointed shepherd, 

 if all that is stated about them be correct. 



It must, I think, be obvious on reflection, that there is no 

 reason whatever to suppose that the Protista can be partitioned 

 out into the few subdivisions generally recognised. It is just 

 as likely that a much larger number of groups must be admitted, 

 and that the progress of microscopic investigations upon the 

 minuter and less-known forms of life, some of them still invisible 

 to us, will greatly increase the number of distinct categories 

 that it will be necessary to set up. 



In the present rather vague state of our knowledge concerning 

 so many of the lower forms of life, it is scarcely possible to 

 attempt to put forward any detailed scheme of classification of 

 the Protista. The characters which determine the affinities and 

 interrelationships of the known groups are difficult to state with 



