BY THE PRESIDENT. 57 



the food of plants and then of animals. While contemplating this 

 scene, this quotation occurred to me — 



" Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 

 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away : 

 Oh ! that that earth which kept the world in awe, 

 Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw." 



The same idea is expressed in the words "Dust thou art, and 

 unto dust shalt thou return." 



The vegetable kingdom abounds in instances of the circulation 

 of matter. I might quote examples ' ' from the cedar of Lebanon 

 to the hyssop on the wall." I have often seen the circulation of 

 chlorophyll in the Anacharis Alsinastrum, the American water- 

 weed, and it forms a most beautiful object when viewed under the 

 microscope. One great use of the vegetable kingdom seems to be 

 to promote the circulation of matter. It takes from the mineral 

 kingdom and builds matter into forms analogous to those found in 

 the animal kingdom, as starch, sugar, albumen, etc. And then we 

 have a class of microscopic plants, whose duty it is to reduce 

 these forms back again to the mineral kingdom, which is effected 

 by means of the vinous and the acetous fermentations. I allude to 

 those forms of life, of which the yeast plant and some of the Bacteria 

 are types, as a most interesting field for study. With regard to 

 the oak, Dryden says : — 



" Three centuries he grows, and three he stays 

 Supreme in state, and in three more decays." 



These words might be applied to man with a little alteration 



thus : — 



" For thirty years he grows, thirty he stays 

 Supreme in state ; in thirty more decays." 



The circulation of water in the earth is very marked. The sun 

 causes aqueous vapour to arise ; it forms clouds, and these again 

 descend on the earth as rain, which finds its way to the sea by 

 the rivers. Even in the ocean there is a marked circulation of 

 water. The same takes place in the air. That storms travel in 

 cyclones or circles is now a well-established fact. The E.ev. James 

 Clutterbuck informs me that Colonel Capper, of Bushey, was the 

 first to indicate the circular motion of air in storms. The sus- 

 pension of water in the air is somewhat remarkable when we con- 

 sider how much heavier water is than air. Some have thought 

 that water is sustained by means of electricity. As there is prob- 

 ably a circulation of electricity between the earth and the sun, it 

 may account for the water being sustained in the air. If matter is 

 so placed that it is free to move, it, as it were, spontaneously 



