PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 7 



Great skill was manifested in choosing the experiments and in 

 arranging their order. The sequence of the experiments was 

 sufficient instruction to most students. The results were so 

 obvious and the interpretation so easy that most of those who 

 saw the demonstration needed no prompting as to the inferences 

 and conclusions. Dr. Martin possessed little oratorical skill. 

 He was not a successful lecturer. His expositions were by no 

 means good accounts of all that is known on a subject. It was 

 necessary to work with him to obtain his instruction. The 

 student who attended classes with a note-book in which he 

 intended to write all he meant to learn on a subject found the 

 lectures most unsatisfactory. The lesson was not prepared for 

 assimilation. The student found that he had to work out much 

 for himself. If the student did what was asked of him, he had, 

 at the end of the course, a training in the science of the func- 

 tions of the living organisms. 



From Charles James Martin I learnt of the inductive and de- 

 ductive methods of analysis. I observed how exj)eriments were 

 employed. I saw how to select an experiment so that some 

 precise inference could be drawn from it. I learnt of physics and 

 chemistry and of their use in explaining the behaviour of living- 

 cells, tissues, organs, and animals. To Charles Hedley I am 

 indebted for a different awakening. I was a teacher of some 

 years' standing in the University of Sydney before I became 

 acquainted with Mr. Hedley. He was a neighbour, and our 

 common interest in this Society led me to cultivate his friend- 

 ship. I had attended classes in zoology and botany at the Uni- 

 versity. During my holidays I had wandered through the bush 

 or meandered over the rocky shore or beach. Many plants and 

 animals attracted my notice, but I found my instruction had left 

 me ignorant of what they were and how to learn of them. As 

 I became acquainted with Mr. Hedley, I formed the habit of 

 taking walks with him, and I was soon the pupil of an accom- 

 plished naturalist. The trees, shrubs and herbs, rocks, birds, 

 and insects had a message. I was led to look at them and see 

 what they revealed. Until this time, science had appeared to 

 me to need incessant analysis. I now saw the science of simple 



