16G PRESIDENT S ADDRESS. 



because they present the primary forms of animal life. Most of 

 them being microscopic and extremely minute, require more 

 skilful examinations ; and as such I beg to recommend them to 

 your special attention, to determine as far as is possible, with the 

 aid of the best microscopic power, which really ought to be 

 placed in the animal, and which in the vegetable, kingdom. 

 Although, strictly speaking, in Nature there may be no actual 

 distinction between these two kingdoms ; and that life, in the 

 lowest animal and that in the simplest plant, may be the same, 

 both beings having the same properties of existence, in their 

 receiving nourishment, in their power of increasing in size, in 

 their propagation, as well as in their being subject to the same 

 penalty of life — namely, death — still the Naturalist must en- 

 deavour to draw a line of demarcation between these two great 

 provinces, for the sake of the arrangement and classification of 

 the infinitely numerous living beings, or organisms, existing in 

 the world. And, for this purpose, the clearest and most certain 

 distinction between an animal and a vegetable seems to be the 

 presence of a stomach, or a stomachic sac, and of a muscular 

 apparatus in the former, and the entire absence of them in the 

 latter. 



Every one can see and determine the natural distinctions sub- 

 sisting between the two Sovereigns of the Forest, or Vegetable 

 Waste, the King of Northern Trees — the Royal Oak^ 



"Tliat holds tlie woods in awful Sovereignty^''^ 



and the King of Southern Animals — the Noble Lion ; yet, who 

 can perceive with certainty the true distinctions between those 

 lowest inhabitants of " the watery waste" — the most trivial and 

 minutest Alga, and the smallest animated Infasm^ian? 



And, for the preservation of the minuter water plants and 

 animals, as well fluviatile as marine, I w^ill here name the great 

 convenience of glazed cases, containing either spring or sea water, 

 with tubes properly adapted for securing a fresh supply. These 

 glass vessels, or tanks, have been termed Hydrozogreia, Aquatic 

 Vivaria, or Aqyaria, and are admirably suited to the investigation 

 • r Ihc minuter organisms; and by being always at hand, the 



