242 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



existing in the palpi or feelers of the males; the mites, from the 

 great variety in their forms, and the want of any English work 

 describing them. Next to these comes the small group of Myria- 

 pods, or centipedes and pencil-tails ; and then we arrive at the 

 great class Tnsecta, the study of which, or entomology, has now be- 

 come so ardently pursued that it is broken up into sections, and the 

 moth hunter, or Lepidopterist, will have nothing to do with the 

 Beetle man, or Coleopterist, nor the Fly man with either. 



As objects of interest even to the young, few things surpass a 

 well-mounted collection of insects, and I do look forward to the 

 time when the insect fauna of the district shall be represented in 

 the Cabinet of the Club by actual named specimens ; while to the 

 possessor of a microscope they yield an endless supply of objects, 

 all showing the most wonderful adaptation in each organ to the 

 purpose it is designed to accomplish, whether it be the trophi or 

 feeding organs, or those of flight, respiration, or reproduction. 



The last great division of the invertebrate animals is the Ifollusca, 

 comprising slugs and shell-fish, of which time does not permit me 

 to speak, except to suggest that the shells of the land and fresh 

 water molluscs of the district should also be collected. 



I may fill up our scale by inserting at least the names of the 

 classes compbsing the Vertebrata. These are : Fishes — Amphibia 

 or Frogs, Toads and Salamanders. Reptiles or Snakes, Lizards 

 and Tortoises. Birds. Mammalia. And by these we reach the 

 prince and head of all creation — man. And what does the micros- 

 cope teach us with regard to ourselves ? Not that we stand apart 

 from the rest of the organic world, but that every organ and tissue 

 has its counterpart in structure and function among creatures, far 

 below us, and that of the many thousands of living beings each 

 forms a link in the vast chain by which even man and the Amoeba form 

 one harmonious whole. To man, however, is given something more 

 — knowledge, reason, and responsibility ; and by these we are led 

 far beyond the limits of the small circle that bounds our daily life, 

 still to find ever outreaching the farthest grasp of microscope or 

 telescope, yet present every moment to our unaided vision, one 

 Creator and Preserver of all, through whom we and all things live 

 and move and have our being. 



