8 president's address. 



Px'ofessor David entertained the Members and their friends in 

 the geological theatre of tlie University at a lecture on November 

 10th, 1909, on the Scientific Results of the British Antarctic 

 Expedition of 1908. A lavish display of maps, specimens, and 

 lantern slides, supported b}' brief addresses on special subjects 

 by Dr. Farr, Dr. Jensen, Dr. Woolnough, and Mr. Goddard, 

 provided an instructive and agreeable evening. 



Our association with Antarctic research has been deepened 

 during the year by invitations accepted and fulfilled by several 

 of our Members to contribute to the volumes published by Sir 

 Ernest Shackleton on the Scientific Results of his Expedition. 



As on the last Expedition several of our Members were 

 honoured by a place, so we learn with pride and pleasure that on 

 the next British Antarctic Expedition we shall be again repre- 

 sented, this time by our strenuous fellow Member, Mr. T. 

 Griffith Taylor. 



The Eighth Intei'national Zoological Congress will meet at 

 Graz in Austria in August, 1910. The Committee have kindly 

 invited this Society to send delegates, but unfortunately our 

 distance from Enrope does not allow us to attend. 



There is, however, a bright prospect that three years hence we 

 may welcome to Sydney the British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. At the suggestion of the Melbourne University 

 Council, a deputation representing the Universities and learned 

 Societies of Australia waited on the Hon. the Prime Minister on 

 December 16th last. Our Corresponding Member, Prof. W. 

 Baldwin Spencer, kindly acted" for us on this occasion. The 

 deputation was sympathetically received, and it is hoped that the 

 Commonwealth, the States, and the citizens will unite in a 

 national invitation, so that the visit of the British Association 

 to Australia in 1913 maybe as successful as that to South Africa 

 in 1905 and that to Canada in 1909. 



For the scientific portion of this Address, I have elected a 

 subject not hitherto discussed in our Proceedings, namely, 



