188 the president's address. 



gen and oxygen — common air, even — but still more, nitrogen and 

 oxygen mixed in the proportion which produces nitric acid. Every 

 thunderstorm probably produces a certain small amount of nitric 

 acid in the air, but it is in the soil, you know, that nitric acid seems 

 to be produced, and Mr. Waddington, the son of my old friend Mr. 

 Waddington, of the old Microscopical Society, has published, a few 

 months ago, a most interesting paper, which has made a great im- 

 pression upon some of our most able chemists, leading to the con^ 

 elusion that this nitrification is a result of the action of some pn> 

 tophyte. He has not been able to discover it microscopically, but 

 the experimental evidence is so strong that I think there is very 

 little doubt entertained by some of those to whom I have spoken on 

 the subject as chemists — extremely good judges — that some minute 

 organism is the real agent in producing this most important conver- 

 sion. 



Now, gentlemen, I feel that I have exhausted the little strength 

 that I had, and I therefore must wish you farewell. I do so with 

 great regret at my own shortcomings, but with every hope for the 

 future welfare and prosperity of the Club. 



