1873.] President's Address. 57 



disease, the cause of which is still so obscure and unknown. And I would 

 add also, will form a very excellent contrast to the carelessly arranged and 

 hastily admitted, or even distorted, evidence, which has more than once been 

 adduced in support of some favourite hypothesis as to the mode of propaga- 

 tion of this disease. 



Dr. Lewis has also given the results of a careful investigation of the 

 condition of cysted meat, such as is frequently to be met within the bazar. 

 And perhaps it may comfort many, who may have been alarmed by ideas of 

 disease to be communicated by eating such food, to know that he has con- 

 clusively shewn that such living organisms are entirely killed, if the meat 

 containing them, be subjected for even five minutes to a temperature of 

 no less than 145° Faht. Rarely indeed are human beings found so 

 cannibal in their tastes, that their cooked food has not been subjected to 

 this condition of temperature, and therefore rarely indeed can there be any 

 fears of such diseased condition of the tissues being conveyed into our system. 

 It is also a gratifying result of Dr. Lewis's enquiry, to notice the very 

 rare occurrence of diseased meat of this kind, among the rations provided 

 for our troops in this country. 



Though special in their application I cannot avoid bringing to your 

 notice the extremely valuable series of volumes, prepared by my friend and col- 

 league in the Geological Survey, Dr. Stoliczka, descriptive of the cretaceous 

 fossils of South India. These volumes form an invaluable record descriptive 

 of one of the finest and most extensive collections from a single formation 

 and a single district, which has ever been brought together, and have been 

 prepared with a fulness of illustration and a widely embracing accuracy of 

 description which render them essential to the Palaeontologist, and almost 

 equally essential to the recent Conchologist. We desire to acknowledge the 

 liberality with which the Government of the country has provided the funds 

 necessary to enable us to double the quantity issued in the year of this series 

 descriptive of Indian Fossils, and we rejoice the more in this, because we 

 read it as a convincing testimony that the loving labours of my colleague, 

 Stoliczka, are really appreciated. I who can speak from experience of his 

 unfailing energy, of his untiring research and marked accuracy, and of his 

 wide range of knowledge of all the bearings of his subject, know full well 

 the immense labour which these works represent, the high scientific value of 

 that labour, and the great interest which they have excited among the 

 Palaeontologists of Europe. But more than all this I know too, and 

 appreciate fully, the unswerving loyalty to his task, which the author has 

 invariably shewn, and the undeviating conscientiousness and devotion which 

 he has brought to bear on its accomplishment. Not only do we feel the 

 high claims that Dr. Stoliczka has to rank among the very first of living 

 molluscan Palaeontologists, but personally I would testify also to the claims 



