president's address. 073 



1 decided to make the subject of this, my second Presidential 

 Address to this Society, an account of any important additions to 

 biological knowledge that had been made in other countries in 

 the course of the last twelve months or so. But before I had 

 made much progress with this, I found that any attempt at a 

 comprehensive review of the history of Biology during the period 

 would be entirely out of the question : it would demand, among 

 other things, a more complete command of the literature of the- 

 subject than is attainable in Australia, it would require more time 

 than I had left for it, and it would take one far beyond all 

 reasonable limits for an address of this kind. I have, therefore, 

 thought it better to confine myself to two subjects, viz., " Recent 

 views on the structure of protoplasm and the significance of the 

 various parts of the cell"; and "Recent work on the Marsupials 

 and Monotremes," the former as being one of the questions of the 

 day with biologists in general, the latter as being of special 

 interest to those of us who have the fortune to be resident in 

 Australia. 



Recent views on the structure op protoplasm and the signi- 

 ficance OF the various parts of the cell. 



Stimulated in part, without doubt, by the publications of the 

 great German theorist Weismann and his disciples and critics or 

 opponents, research and discussion on cell-structure and the 

 various phases of cell-division has been fairly active during the last 

 year or two. Attention has been attracted to the importance of 

 determining more detinitely the meaning and functions of the 

 various parts of the cell ; and. some definite progress has 

 undoubtedly been made of late in our knowledge of the relative 

 importance in connection with nutrition, movement, regeneration 

 of lost parts and reproduction, of the difi"erent parts of the animal 

 and plant cell. The position of predominance not long ago accorded 

 to the nucleus by almost all biologists has, in the view of many, 

 become less assured. Formerly the nucleus was regarded as the 

 physiologically essential part of the cell, the cytoplasm or protoplasm 

 of the body of the cell serving mainly as a storehouse of nutriment 



