THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 375 



Creation " attracted attention, but wanted detail, and was regarded 

 by scientific men as no more than a clever essay. 



It was not until the year 1859 that Natural History can be said 

 to have entered into its present phase. It was Charles Darwin's 

 great work, " The Origin of Species," which inaugurated the new 

 era, and turned the thoughts of Biologists into new channels ; it was 

 through this, in my estimation, the grandest book on Natural 

 History ever published, that the old methods of study gave place 

 to the new. The fearless publication of " The Origin of Species " 

 must be credited, to a great extent, with the rapid advances of the 

 last three decades. 



It may be that the construction of Hypothetical lines of descent, 

 Phylogeny, which found exuberant development in the works of 

 Professor Haackel and his followers, are premature, but they re- 

 placed the old search for the one natural classification, the 

 philosopher's stone of biology, which gave rise to such fanciful ideas 

 as the ternary and quinary groups of Swainson and MacLeay ; the 

 circles within circles, a favourite puzzle to me when a mere lad, 

 popular in their time, but perhaps quite unknown to many of the 

 rising workers of the present day. 



But to return from the long digression to the seventeenth century 

 and Swammerdam. For one thing, I am sure you will all have an 

 interest in him; he was the inventor of mounting objects in balsam. 

 He soaked his insects in turpentine, and mounted them in balsam* 

 to examine their more minute details of structure ; and his drawings 

 have been admired by all. It is said that he spent a month, work- 

 ing almost night and day, at the intestine of the hive-bee. That, 

 at least, is evidence of the thoroughness of his work. 



The next great epoch is marked by the appearance of De 

 Reaumur's " Memoirs." 



Reaumur was born at Rochelle, in 1683, and is known to us all 

 by his thermometer. He also invented a process for making steel, 

 for which the French Government gave him a pension. The chief 

 work of his life was, however, his " Memoirs," published in 1738, 

 and the investigations which led to them. His steel process is 

 superseded, his thermometer is a mere scale which is little used 

 now, but his " Memoirs " are immortal. 



* "Detexerat, adipem cujusque Insecti dissolvi perfecte in Oleo Tere- 

 binthinse, eoque facto balsamo condiri posse," fiom " The Life of Swam- 

 merdam," by Boerhaave. " Bybel der Natnure," p. 16, Edit. 1737. 



