and professional cares would permit. He (Dr. 

 Wills) was the merest amateur in the wide field 

 of science ouside his own profession, but at the 

 same time he was very keenly interested in the 

 various things which constituted the Society's 

 programme, and he hoped in some degree to make 

 up in enthusi-tsm what he lacked in knowledge, 

 and add very substantially to both knowledge and 

 enthusiasm as time went on. Taking for his sub- 

 ject " Our position towards Science" rather than 

 '' The attitude of Science towards us," the new 

 President said he felt that in a Society like 

 that it was absolutely essential to devote 

 their best endeavours to seeing what could be done 

 to improve the position of the Society in every 

 ■way and to attract interest thereto. That could 

 not be^done without their keeping their fingers on 

 the pulse of the public while, at the same time 

 they sacrificed nothing for science. Their pro- 

 gress might be stated thus ; — J . The assistance of 

 scientific enquiry. 2. The promotion of intercourse 

 between individuals who cultivate any branch of 

 science. H. The endeavour to claim more general 

 attention to scientific objects. 4. The removal of 

 any hindrances to progress of a public or private 

 character. The first of these i'.ems \as met very 

 fairly by their meetings for the presentation of 

 papers on matters of interest and for discussion ; 

 by the provision and maintenance of the refer- 

 ence library, and by work of their local secretaries 

 or referees, of whose kindly assistance enquirers 

 could avail themselves if they would. As to the 

 second point, the promotion of intercourse between 

 those interested in scientific matters, important as 

 it was, might be very much more extensively 

 utilized, and they trusted it would be so. They 

 knew what difficulties there were of bringing 

 together people in different grades of society, even 

 in the consideration of scientific things. But their 

 most serious difficulty arose when they endeav- 

 oured to raise more interest amongst the public 

 generally. There was no doubt the public to-day 

 were quite willing to avail themselves of the 

 accf.mplished facts of science so far as they 

 ministei-ed to pleasui-e and convenience, or lent 

 themselves to spectacular effects, but were perhaps 

 little inclined to recognise the benefits obtained 

 by displaying practical interest in the means by 

 which such benefits were brought about. In fact 

 there could be no denying that in this country 

 there was deplorable apathy manifested towards 

 scientific knowledge or the facilities o^ered to 

 attain it, and he suspected that this laxity lay 

 at the root of our defective commercial pro- 

 gress compared with our rivals on the Con- 

 tinent, who bad long ago recognized the 

 need for the best scientific training in 

 the competition of the present day If we 

 asked the reason for this apathy perhaps it might 

 be found in the prevalence of 



AN INSATIABLE LOVE OF PLEASURE 



in all forms, and of course a corresponding 

 absence of interest in any pursuit involving 

 sustained effort and self-discipline ; and in no 

 department was this more visible than in litera- 

 ture, while it was only too obvious that the 

 increasing demand for sensational novels must 



destroy the taste for, or assimilation of, useful 

 information in the same manner as the physical 

 appetite for wholesome food was destroyed by in- 

 discriminate gorging of sweet-meats. He did not 

 for a moment belittle the nature of a certain kind 

 of fiction. For instance, if we took Scott's works, 

 there we had some of the finest word painting — 

 absolutely artists' work in print. Then there 

 were the works of Dickens, whose books had 

 a remarkable effect in bringing before the 

 public the conditions of certain classes. Librarians 

 would tell them that the only books that really 

 had any circulation were the most sensational 

 fiction. It was absolutely impossible for a person 

 who had given himself up to fiction to settle down 

 to solid scientific reading. It was their duty as a 

 Society to point that out. It was rather a theo- 

 retical remark, but at the same time they 

 would have to go deeper into it and find out 

 whether they could give force to such a remark 

 as that. He could not help thinking — and it was 

 almost a truism — that the only antidote to apathy 

 was enthusiasm, and both were very infectious. 

 It bfihoved those of them who desired to snread a 

 thirst for knowledge to be always acquiring more 

 themselves and giving out to others. He was 

 convinced that such should be their attitude if 

 they had the good of their country at heart, for 

 the apathy they had just complained about was 

 no doubt becoming a rational evil, and if not 

 averted could hardly fail to lead on to a national 

 calamity. To illustrate and emphasize the impor- 

 tance of those questions they mioht glance at 

 the subject of our food supply. Perhaps it was 

 realised only by a small proportion of even our 

 better educated classes how important it was that 

 with an increased population and a far higher 

 standard of living it was practically impossible to 

 follow out the methods of past years in any one 

 of those industries involved in the equalising of 

 supply and demand. If they took the question of 



COLLECTING AND DISTRIBUTING FOOD 



only, they had at once ample material for thought. 

 Scientific methods were demanded to obtain the ut- 

 most from the land in the shape of food stuffs for the 

 man, as w«U as for the animals, which also, in their 

 turn, provided him with food. Those vegetable 

 foods demanded careful study in order that the 

 best species might be selected, cross-fertilised, 

 grafted, or otherwise adapted to meet the special 

 conditions of climate under which they were 

 required to grow ; their diseases must be studied, 

 the habits of destructive fungi or insect pests 

 determined in order that they might be destroyed 

 at the most favourable times,as indicated by a study 

 of their life history, which might point out to us that 

 the preservation and cultivation of some other 

 forms of animal and insect life might do this 

 guardian work for us in cheapest and the most 

 efficient manner. Next the questions of harvesting 

 and preserving those foods in the most economical 

 manner presented themselves and they must 

 consider to what extent partial cooking, the use 

 of sealed vessels or antiseptic chemicals could be 

 adopted without injury to the most valuable 

 properties of those delicate materials. Finally, 

 the collection of foods into great distributing 



