Section II.— CHEMISTRY, BACTERIOLOGY. GEOLOGY, 

 BOTANY, MINERALOGY, ZOOLOGY, AGRICULTURE, 

 FORESTRY, AND SANITARY SCIENCE. 



President of the Section : — C. F. Juritz. M.A., D.Sc, F.I.C. 



WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29. 



The President delivered the following address : — 



Just a century ago Charles Darwin was born ; within two months 

 we shall pass the jubilee of the publication of his " Origin of 

 Species." It is no hyperbole to assert that all down the last fifty 

 years the study of biological science has been tinged by the influence 

 of that great naturalist. We may hold the opinions that he set 

 forth, or we may differ widely from his views, but to deny that he 

 set the course for subsequent students of biology during the last 

 half century would be to contradict plain facts. 



All must also agree that, even if, as the late Duke of Argyll 

 observed,* 



" the attempt to string all the beads of human knowledge on one loose-tibred 

 thread of thought called Evolution " 



has been a failure, it still holds true that 



" the beads remain, ready for a truer arrangement, and a better setting, in 

 the j^ears to come." 



or, to adopt Sir J. \V. Dawson's simile. t our " successors may be 

 able to secure the pure grains of trutli after the chaff of unproved 

 hypotheses has been swept away." 



The branches of study that form the chief pursuits of the mem- 

 bers cf this section may be summarised in three groups : Geology, 

 Chemistry and Biology. Every one of these may be said to have 

 assumed its modern dress since the days when Darwin attended 

 Edward VI.'s Grammar School, and ran up and down the hilly 

 streets of Shrewsbury. Two of these sister sciences already seem 

 to be looking for another change of raiment. 



A century back geologists were divided into two hostile camps, 

 and two years prior to Darwin's birth the establishment of the 

 Geological Society of London not only laid the foundations of a 

 better understanding between Plutonists and Neptunists, but, 

 what was far more important, by setting to work to collect and 

 study facts, it most effectually checked the fanciful hypotheses 

 and vague theories which over-ardent devotees of the science 

 seemed all too ready to give rein to. But the fundamentals of the 

 science did not thereby acquire finality and permanence, and 

 only a quarter of a century ago Suess propomided what was virtually 

 a new geology, setting aside the elevation theory in favour of the 

 view^ of differential collapse of the earth's crust. Geologists, more- 

 over, are exhibiting remorse at ever having associated themselves 



* " Organic Evolution Cross-examined," p. 194. 

 f "Modern Ideas of Evolution," p. 241. 



