1901-1902. | Presidential Address. 387 
made the discharge of my duties so pleasant and so agreeable 
as I have found them to be. You have done this in the best 
and most practical form, for it is with no small satisfaction 
that I find myself able to inform you that, not only has our 
membership during the past session reached the highest number 
of the past fourteen years, but the attendance also at our in- 
door meetings has, I think, seldom been better. Thirty-three 
new members were admitted during the session. The phenom- 
enally bad weather of last spring and early summer is alone to. 
blame for our field-excursions having been, on the whole, not 
quite so pleasant and so successful as in former years. ‘This. 
is all the more to be regretted seeing that the places selected - 
for our excursions had met with such general approval by 
the members. 
I do not propose to detain you this evening with a review 
of the work of the past session. That you may yourselves do, 
far better, by looking over the billets of the sessional meetings. 
and the lists of excursions, as well as by a careful perusal of 
the ‘ Transactions,’ when ready, at your own firesides. 
I would however remind you of the charming variety of 
the subjects and objects which have been brought before us. 
Such as could be observed and handled alike in the field, the 
laboratory, and the study; by the unaided vision, as well as. 
by that marvellous revealer of vast and otherwise unknown 
realms—the microscope. 
Our programme is limited by the bounds of Nature alone, 
and the mind of finite man can place no bounds upon the Infin- 
ite, who works and reveals Himself through Nature which can 
be seen and felt, as well as through the Spirit which, like the 
wind that bloweth, is unseen and impalpable. 
We have studied birds and beasts, fishes and insects, plants 
and rocks. We have compared and contrasted them. We have 
considered their uses in the economy of Nature. We have 
seen them in their beauty as a whole, and we have dissected 
and microscopically examined them, discovering something of 
their inner workings, their marvellous construction and adapt- 
ability to the functions they have to perform, and to the en- 
vironment in which they exercise them. We have considered 
things antiquarian too, for these bring us to contemplate man, 
himself—the greatest, because the highest, work of Nature. 
