56 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



they return. Some comets may only connect and form a bond of 

 union between our solar system and those solar systems nearest to 

 it, while other comets may connect constellations of solar systems, 

 and others again unite constellations into nebula;, and nebulae may 

 be united to other nebula?. If this is so, we need not wonder that 

 some comets never return. 



I fear that I have detained you too long with examples from the 

 macrocosm, the greater universe, and I must come down to earth 

 and iind examples from the microcosm, or lesser world of man. 

 "With regard to my own body. I have breathed — that is, I have 

 circulated air — about 500 millions of times in my life. My blood 

 circulates in about a minute. Through the lungs it circulates five 

 times as quickly. There are lesser circulations through the liver 

 and otlicr organs of my body. Nervous force travels in about 110 

 to 140 feet in a second. There is probably a constant circulation 

 of nervous force. The now well-known law of reflex action seems 

 to prove it. The question is often asked, " What is life ?" There 

 are three organs in the body so important that they are called 

 "the tripod of life," — the brain, the heart, the lungs. When the 

 circulation of the blood or of the nervous force is arrested in 

 either of these organs, death is the result. Life is coincident, and 

 only compatible with circulation. 



The circulation of matter is so tersely recorded by Pope that I 

 may be excused for quoting him — 



" See matter next, with various life endued, 

 Press to one centre still, the general good. 

 See dying vegetables life sustain, 

 See life dissolving vegetate again. 

 All forms that perish other forms supply, 

 (By turns we catch the vital breath, and die) 

 Like bubbles on the sea of matter born, 

 They rise, they break, and to that sea return." 



An instance of the circulation of human matter was brought to 

 my notice the other day. On November 25th, 1877, I went to 

 King's Langley church and saw all that was to be seen of the mortal 

 remains of Edmund of Langley, fifth son of Edward the Third. I 

 saw some bones of him and of his wife reverently placed in a 

 wooden box. There was placed in a corner of the church a heap 

 of dust that had been found in his tomb. Some of the matter 

 of this dust, I could fancy to myself, alive and circulating on 

 the trees in the Priory garden, and immortalised by Shakespeare, 

 or running about the fields of Langley 500 years ago ; and now, if 

 it had not been for the pious care taken of it, it might again form 



