Otago Institute. 015 



These discoveries, however, important as they are, can hardly be said to 

 extend the domain of biology. Each can be placed at once in its appro- 

 priate pigeon-hole, and, although necessitating a reconsideration of the 

 ordinary views on certain speculative matters, they have no effect on the 

 fundamental conceptions of the science. But there is a series of researches 

 now being carried on by numerous workers in Germany, France, and Eng- 

 land, which seem, as it were, to open a new vista, and promise to have as 

 profound an effect on the biology of the future as the work of Schwann and 

 Sclileiden — the founders of the cell theory — had on that of fifty years ago. 

 I refer to the researches on the minute structure of cells and nuclei, on the 

 exact nature of the phenomena accompanying the maturation and impregna- 

 tion of the egg-cell, and of those accompanying secretion in gland cells. 

 One sees a new department of molecular biology unfolding before one's 

 eyes, the various vital processes becoming more and more obviously matters 

 of molecular physics and chemistry. 



It would take several addresses of the length of this to give even an out- 

 line of this fascinating subject. As it is, I can only refer those who wish to 

 acquaint themselves with the line of inquiry to which I refer to three 

 articles in the " Encyclopiiedia Britannica" — that on "Physiology" by Pro- 

 fessor Michael Foster, and those on " Morphology " and on " Eeproduction " 

 by Mr. Patrick Geddes. Suffice it to say, for the present, that biology is 

 daily becoming at once more exact and more philosophical. 



I have now only to resign this chair to my friend Mr. Chapman, whom 

 I beg to welcome in the name of the Institute as a man in whom wide and 

 curious learning is happily combined with legal acumen, and whose influence 

 will, I feel sure — especially if seconded by a rise in wool — do much to restore 

 this Society to the state of prosperity in which we all wish to see it. 



7. The office-bearers for the ensuing session were elected as 

 follows : — President — F. E. Chapman ; Vice-Presidents — Prof. 

 Parker, A. Wilson ; Secretary — G. M. Thomson ; Treasurer — 

 J. C. Thomson; Auditor — Mr. Brent; Council — Dr. Hocken, 

 (t. M. Barr, Dr. De Zouche, E. Milland, Dr. Scott, D. Petrie, 

 C. Chilton. 



