49 



7.— A^myERSAEY ADDRESS. 



By tlie Tresident, ALFRED T. BRETT, M.D. 



[Delivered at the Annual Meeting, 14th February, 1878.] 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — 



When you did me the honour to elect me President of this 

 Society, it gave me great pleasure to find such an expression of 

 your confidence and of your goodwill. But these feelings of 

 gratification were mingled with other feelings of a difi'erent 

 nature. I was difiident of my abilities to do justice to the office, 

 both from want of time and because I had not hitherto given 

 special attention to those studies which are usually included 

 under Natural History, my life being chiefly devoted to the study 

 of what may be called abnormal or diseased nature. Besides, I 

 thought that my deficiencies would be more marked, coming after 

 a President such as my predecessor, a man so well and universally 

 known in the scientific world, who has presided over many of the 

 learned and scientific societies in London, and who has lately most 

 deservedly received the highest honour that Oxford could bestow. 

 And, moreover, the knowledge of the fact that it would be ex- 

 pected of me to give an address this evening did not add to my 

 feeling of joy. Not that I wanted a subject on which to address 

 you, for if I consulted the Book of Nature, and selected that 

 volume devoted to the Natural History of Hertfordshire, I should 

 find many parts unread and some of the pages uncut. How little 

 do we know of our fresh-water Algae, our fresh-water shells, our 

 mosses, our lichens, not to mention the worlds revealed by the 

 microscope. Any of these, or the climate of Watford even, might 

 have afforded me a topic of investigation. 



I shall prefer to occupy the short time allowed me this evening 

 in making some remarks on Nature generally. I fear you will think 

 that I take you too much into the regions of speculation and of 

 theory, and that instead of directing your attention to the marvels 

 of Astronomy and Physics, I should have taken a humbler flight 

 and have confined my remarks more to our own county. 



In order to facilitate study we adopt what is called the division 

 of labour, and we have each of us our own pet " ology." But we 

 must recollect tliat Nature is one and indivisible — she does not 

 divide herself thus — she forms one unbroken chain. 



VOL. II. — FT. II. 4 



