president's address. 23 



has contributed a paper "On a Strongyliform Nematode from 

 the American Beaver," to the American Journal of Parasitology. 

 Miss Irwin Smith has also undertaken the preparation of a report 

 on a collection of parasitic Nematodes brought back from An- 

 tarctica by the expedition led by Sir Douglas Mawson. When 

 that is completed, she proposes to study a collection of parasitic 

 Nematodes and Linguatulidce from Australian hosts, principally 

 a\ ian and reptilian. As this is the first time a woman has been 

 appointed to a Fellowship, T take the opportunity of offering her 

 a special welcome, and of assuring her of our sympathy and our 

 desire to help her in every possible way in carrying out her work. 



A year ago 1 sought your attention to the rarity of the capacity 

 to make original observations. Minds in general travel along 

 certain logical routes traced by a limited number of facts. What 

 is not known is not perceived by the senses. Little weight is 

 attached as yet in our community to the capacity to note what 

 others have failed to observe. In the educational sphere, it 

 would be wise to give more consideration to the ability to do 

 research work. I have noticed that even Government Research 

 Scholarships are awarded more for academic training and for 

 the power of assimilating knowledge than for capability to under- 

 take investigation. You will pardon me if I spend a few minutes 

 in the examination of some studies which have been continued 

 for several years in the Physiological Laboratories of the Uni- 

 versity. We have been engaged in making observations and 

 performing experiments on the breath of man. That human life 

 is intimately associated with respiration is acknowledged univer- 

 sally. The breath of life distinguishes the living from the dead 

 person. It has been an object of interest to natural philosophers 

 since the beginning of the historic age. The earliest savants 

 noted the warmth of the breath, and believed that respiration 

 was concerned with cooling the body. A few taught that the 

 expired air was different in composition from the inspired air, 

 but were unable to point out any tangible basis of their belief. 

 The usual explanation of suffocation was that the absence of 

 breathing occasioned overheating of the body. We see in this 



