v.— MISCELLANEOUS. 



Aet. LXIII. — Liaugural Address. 

 Bv Edwaed Teegeae. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 29th June, 1898.] 



The vast range of subjects to be considered if we attempt to 

 view the whole field of science makes it impossible in a single 

 short address to present a picture of the whole. If one even- 

 ing could be devoted to each branch of science it would per- 

 haps be possible to convey some idea of the present position of 

 knowledge, but even then there would be great difficulty in 

 steering between the Scylla of technical terms that appear 

 pedantic and the Charybdis of loose popular expression. I 

 can only hope to call your attention this evening to a few 

 facts which I consider interesting, and which may have 

 escaped your notice, and I can only do this in a few branches 

 of science by reviewing late additions to our acquaintance 

 with the universe. 



First we will take the most ancient and in many ways the 

 grandest department of science — viz., that of astronomy. 

 The great advances that have taken place of late years in 

 exact astronomical knowledge have been achieved not only by 

 the exertions of trained and acute observers, and by the use 

 of more powerful telescopes, but by the aid of photography, 

 spectrum analysis, and other methods of investigation and 

 check. To many of us the interest we take in the solar 

 system is contained in the idea that the other planets may be 

 worlds like our own, that they may be inhabited by people 

 like ourselves, or perchance be our own homes in some future 

 state of existence. Even the hope of being able to com- 

 municate with their inhabitants in this life is not considered 

 too wild and visionary a speculation for many people to 

 entertain. Little hope, however, can be obtained in this 

 direction from astronomy at its present stage of develop- 

 ment. Some new and surprising discovery, some process as 

 startling to us as the revelations of the spectrum analysis 

 would have been considered fifty years ago, will have 

 to be evolved from the human brain before man is able to set 

 up communication with other planets, and even before he can 



