8 INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



of living worms, the discipline of science steps in and shows us how 

 to avoid all danger of contagion. 



In reference to this matter, let me further observe that it is rather 

 to the practical natural history bearings of the subject that I would 

 invite your attention. From the sanitary point of view, as I have 

 elsewhere urged, " there is no department of biological knowledge 

 that possesses equal interest in relation to the welfare of man and 

 beast, and certainly there is no department of science so thoroughly 

 misunderstood by those who are most directly concerned in the ap- 

 preciation of its revelations." Of course it is open to any one to 

 occupy himself with the minute structure of helminths, but it will 

 require rare skill and prolonged labour to rival what has been 

 already accomplished in this direction. The memoirs of Messrs. 

 Sommer and Landois in the histology of the Cestodes, and the 

 still more recent memoir of Mr. Whiteman respecting the anatomy 

 and development of Clepsine, are models of what can be achieved 

 in this line of research. But we cannot all do all things ; and 

 however important such monographs may be in relation to compara- 

 tive anatomy and philosophical zoology, it is clear that a much less 

 pretentious kind of scientific activity is capable of producing far 

 greater results in relation to the welfare of the community. 



In conclusion, I ask you not to be discouraged ; yet, I can well 

 understand how it is that so many shrink from scientific work. Some 

 of us have injured our sight in the clumsy efforts of early life ; but 

 now-a-days, by improved appliances, the visual organs are not sub- 

 jected to the same degree of strain. This is an immense gain. 

 Viewed broadly, I conceive that this Club recognises every kind of 

 microscopic investigation which in its teachings has a tendency to 

 promote general culture and social advancement in the legitimate 

 sense of that much abused term. Because a member, by reason of 

 his calling or other circumstances, is absolutely debarred from 

 sustained scientific labour, that is no reason why he should not 

 associate himself with those who are more immediately concerned 

 in the actual progress of science. Far otherwise. The more a man 

 of active business habits gets out of his daily routine and groove by 

 joining a scientific club such as this, the better for himself and his 

 friends. Such an one soon acquires social ideas of a higher order 

 than those which are commonly obtained at places of amusement 

 only, and ever increasing stores of useful knowledge, gained in an 

 agreeable manner, become thus profitably diffused. In science we have 



