158 DUBLIN UNIVERSITY 



has been brought before the Association will have found a permanent 

 place in those Proceedings, and may be regarded as so much harvest 

 reaped and gathered, and added to the general storehouse of zoological 

 and botanical lore. Shall we ask ourselves, therefore, of what our 

 harvest has consisted ? what proportion of wheat there has been to our 

 chaff? and what per-centage of profits returned for the capital invested 

 or expended ? 



Such questions may be very proper for each of us to ask himself 

 individually, in order to ascertain whether he has or has not been a 

 useful member of the Association during the past year. But, as an 

 incoming President, my business is less with the past than with 

 the future. Neither my duty nor my inclination impels me to sift 

 the wheat from the chaff in what has hitherto come before us. Time, 

 the destroyer, will sweep away the chaff, the wheat will become 

 matter of history. And, without particularly alluding to the papers of 

 preceding sessions, whatever their per-centage of "the seed of immor- 

 tality " may have been, we may be allowed to look forward in coming 

 seasons to an increasing harvest. Our beginnings have been small ; 

 we have gradually increased, and are, I trust, now firmly established as 

 an institution. Every year hitherto has added to the strength and 

 vigour of our Association, and still there is abundant room for further 

 growth and increased fruitfulness. Or, to shift the metaphor from 

 botany, and give it a zoological turn, the originators of the Association 

 provided in its construction the elements of a high organization. Its 

 working parts were planned on a large scale, long before there was work 

 for them to do. You have all noticed the apparent disproportion be- 

 tween the organs of a young pigeon before it has left the nest — the great 

 scald head, the round staring eyes, the unwieldy and flabby body, 

 and the legs and wings that have yet to learn their functions. The 

 helpless nestling, if it were to remain in that condition, would excite 

 only pity or disgust, as a misshapen monster ; but as it continues to 

 grow, the relation between its parts becomes fixed, the monstrosity dis- 

 appears, and we then recognise a wise forethought that arranged before- 

 hand the essential elements of a future being, destined to take the 

 strongest and most rapid flight. So our framers, in giving us a President, 

 Vice-Presidents, Treasurer, Librarian, Secretaries, Botanical Com- 

 mittees, Zoological Committees, and a Council, have certainly provided 

 well for all future possible wants, and it only remains for the Members 



