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THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



On Biological Analogies. 



Delivered at the Annual General Meeting, July 27th, 1883. 



By M. C. Cooke, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S., &c. 



It is no longer possible, ■within the limits of an annual Address, to 

 summarize the work in which the microscope has been the medium 

 of investigation during the year. A catalogue of books, memoirs, 

 and communications would scarcely prove " light reading," and, 

 however useful practically, is not the direction in which your Presi- 

 dent would desire to expend his expiring energies at the close of his 

 term of office. The alternative which I have selected may not be a 

 theme of thrilling interest, nor one replete with novelties. It can 

 lay claim to little more than making use of the labours of others, 

 by stringing together a series of facts, inferences, and suggestions, 

 with no claim to originality beyond the form in which they are pre- 

 sented. All that I desire to perform is to compress within 

 moderate limits some materials for thought and reflection, which 

 may perhaps furnish the filling up of such stray half hours as you 

 may possess in the next two or three months of the year, when 

 many of you will find yourselves enjoying a temporary release from 

 the cares and anxieties of every- day life at the seaside, or strolling 

 along green lanes. Under such circumstances, brought into closer 

 relationship with natural objects, in a natural condition, it may prove 

 a pleasing relaxation to trace " Biological analogies," and correllate 

 the harmonies of Nature, and realize that — 



For his gayer hours 

 She has a voice of gladness, and a smile 

 And eloquence of beauty ; and she glides 

 Into his darker musings, with a mild 

 And healing sympathy, that steals away 

 Their sharpness ere he is aware. 



The analogies which may be traced in the animal and vegetable 

 kingdoms, as far as they were then known, were made the subject of 

 comment a century ago, and consequently anterior to the most re- 



