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South London Microscopical and Natural History Club.* 

 Inaugural Address. By E. Braithwaite, M.D., V.P. 



{Read May 16th, 1871.) 



In speaking of the objects to be carried out by associations like 

 the present Society, it is scarcely necessary to dwell upon the ad- 

 vantages resulting from an acquaintance with science and natural 

 history, for it must be profitable to everyone to know the structure 

 and functions of the organic world around us, and especially in the 

 young is it laudable to foster those habits of observation and or- 

 derly arrangement which will afterward be of service in every walk 

 of life ; be he a physician ? — enlarging his powers of diagnosis ; be 

 he a clergyman? — supplying him with some of his most forcible 

 arguments and impressive similes ; or be he a workman ? — then his 

 work will be more artistic, his designs more chaste, the more clearly 

 he understands those natural objects, from which in many instances 

 his patterns are derived ; or, lastly, to him who pursues the study 

 for amusement, these observations will bring much to elevate and 

 instruct, much that will make him a better and a wiser man ; for 

 this love of the true and the beautiful, as ceaselessly manifested in 

 the phenomena of the organic creation, must react on every incident 

 of daily life. And since we must presume that those who know most 

 of God's works are indeed living nearer to Himself, then must this 

 glorious instrument — the microscope — which places us at the gate 

 of a new wonderland, be reckoned among the chief aids to moral 

 improvement ; on its use and manipulation [ shall not speak, but 

 leave that to such of my colleagues as are better qualified to do so. 



In looking around for examples for our imitation, I would rather 

 take you back a century, and place before you those naturalists, the 

 immediate successors of Linnaeus, to whom we owe so much, than 

 involve you in theories of development or speculations on the origin 

 of life; for to some here the plan of creation is doutbless still un- 



* Printed by authority of the Committee of Q. M. C. 



