FIRST WINTER MEETING— OCTOBER 14th, 1902. 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY MR. SIDNEY HARVEY. 



After the usual annual business meetinar held in 

 "the Beaney Institute on October 14th, the Presi- 

 ■dent gave his annual address, in the cjurse of 

 which he said :— It is usual on such occasions as 

 the present to review the work of the past year, 

 bat, I think, as I have only a short time at my 

 disposal this evening, I will endeavour to say 

 something to stimulate our members to take en- 

 couragement from the example of the workers in 

 the past. 



The year has been a very memorable one, 

 firstly, because our Society had the temerity to 

 invite the Congress to meet in Canterbury, the 

 Congress of Natural History Societies, memorable 

 on account of the new Education Bill, and the 

 (Questions cropping up from it in regard to 

 technical and secondary education, but with these 

 details I will not deal. I think we may take a 

 great deal of encouragement from the famous 

 meetings we had during tbo Congress. First of 

 all we had a grand display of articles of interest ; 

 specimens of natural history, fossils, stone imple- 

 ments, plants, marine life, and objects generally 

 suitable for such a time and such a gathering. The 

 old City had the honour of being the place selected 

 by Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson, LL.D.,F.R.S., for giv- 

 ing his famous paper on "Leprosy." It might seem 

 a strange subject for such a Congress, but in my 

 humble opinion a very appropriate one. We all 

 know how skilfully, exhauitively, and splendidly 

 he dealt with it. He did the City and the Con, 

 gress a great honour by giving his first utterances 

 on the subject on that occasion. 



I had had some thoughts of making a general 

 series of remarks upon the progress of science in 

 this country dunng modern times, but I found 

 that the time allotted me this evening would not 

 allow me to touch more than the fringe of the 

 subject ; therefore I have felt driven to confine 

 myself to speaking to you about those who 

 have done so much to foster and help on the study 

 and love of natural history pursuits in Kent, so 

 far as I feel justified by forty-two years' knowledge 

 of them. 



Continuing, the speaker mentioned first of all 

 William Har-ey, the great discover of the circu- 

 lation of the blood, and to whose immortal memory 

 a statue has been erected near the Leas, at Folke- 

 stone ; mention was next made of Stephen Grey, 

 who in the eighteenth century, was in the fore- 



front of electrical discovery, and suffered persecu' 

 tion for maintaining, in 1720, that electricity and 

 lightning had something in common with each 

 other ; this was many years before Franklin's 

 celebrated discovery. James Six, a Canterbury 

 chemist, who in 1780 made regular meteorological 

 observations. He placed one thermometer on the 

 top of the tall Cathedral tower, another on St. 

 Thomas' Hill, and a third in his own garden, and 

 compared these every day, and thus learnt a good 

 deal about the earth's radiation. He inventt-d for 

 these experiments the well-known registering 

 maximum and minimum thermometer which bears 

 his name, and thousands of which are sold and are 

 in constant use at the present time. His papers 

 were read before the Royal Society. A full account 

 is in our City Library, with drawings of hia 

 original instruments., Next followed references 

 to George Newport, a Canterbury man, who 

 flourishRd in the early part of the nineteenth 

 century, and was perhaps the first entomologist of 

 his day. His researches in natural history were 

 most numerous and important. The Rev. J. B. 

 Reade, who ended his days at Bishopsbourne 

 Rectory, was one of the leading microscopists, 

 and his fame endures to the present time. Hia 

 talents were versatile, and his discoveries in photo, 

 graphy, chemistry, and natural history were very 

 numerous and important. He was one of the 

 Vice-Presidents of this Society, and was a great 

 source of power and influence in it during his all- 

 to short residence amongst as. Of him it may be 

 truly said that he did more than any other man 

 in developing the powers and improving the 

 achromatic microscope. He {the speaker) looked 

 back with pleasure to the happy scientific inter- 

 course he enjoyed with him. The next to receive 

 notice was George Gulliver, F.R.S., Curator of the 

 Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons, and 

 one of the Consulting Naturalists of the British 

 Museum. On his retirement he came to live in 

 Canterbury, and was a Vice-President of this 

 Society. Even to epitomise his work would occupy 

 the rest of the time allowed for this address. His 

 researches were most numerous and important, 

 especially regarding blood corpuscles and the 

 minute anatomy of the Mollusca. He was the 

 first authority on plant crystals, and his valuable 

 papers on this subject are in oar library. He was 

 a man of immense energy and a great acquisition 



