818 president's address. 



opinion of those best qualified to judge was by no means the least 

 successful and enjoyable of the series. Representative visitors 

 from the other colonies were strongly in evidence, and the 

 opportunities for comparing notes, for exchanging ideas, for talk- 

 ing over questions of correlation and problems of intercolonial 

 and general interest, and for the promotion of good fellowship 

 generally, were freely taken advantage of. The proceedings of 

 Section D., Biology, were somewhat clouded by the lamented 

 death of Professor Jeffery Parker, D.Sc, F.R.S., President elect. 

 Professor C. J. Martin at short notice kindly agreed to fill the 

 breach, and Ijoth by his interesting Address, and by his genial and 

 efficient exercise of the functions of Chairman, contributed in a 

 high degree to the success which attended the meetings and 

 deliberations of the Section. On this occasion, for various 

 reasons, the botanists were more strongly and actively represented 

 than the zoologists. They showed their wisdom, too, in ha\ing 

 on hand for discussion knotty and perplexing problems of general 

 interest, such as the Classification of the Eucalypts, which can be 

 dealt with to most advantage at the meetings of the Federal 

 Parliament of Science, for then naturalists from widely separated 

 districts in the different Colonies can unl>urden themselves of 

 their local knowledge, and so contribute to the consideration of 

 difficult questions on broad and comprehensive lines. Zoologists 

 and botanists alike will perhaps he glad to hear that at the next 

 meeting of the Association in Melbourne Professor Spencer hopes 

 in a similar manner to arrange for some special papers leading up 

 to the discussion of biological problems of other than merely local 

 and colonial interest. In no direction perhaps can Section D 

 accomplish better and more useful work. 



I trust I may be pardoned for singling out for special remark 

 certain papers which have during the year been published in 

 England, not only since these have been the work of Members of 

 this Society at present absent from Australia but because their 

 subject matter is to a great extent of a very specially Australian 

 interest. I refer to papers by Dr. Robert Broom on the Mor- 

 phology of Jacobson's Organ in the Mammalia; by Dr. Elliot 



