SESSION 1898-1899. 



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12th, 1898. 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS 



BY 



Dr. W. J. TREUTLER, F.L.S. 



(President), on 



it in its Jl^lati0tt to ^an 

 anb ^nitnals/' 



DR. TREUTLER began by pointing out that one of the 

 charms of the study of Nature is that as soon as we 

 look beneath the surface, what strikes the superficial observer 

 as common-place, becomes at once a source of fascinating 

 interest and admiring wonder, " This is eminently the case," 

 he remarked, " with the phenomena connected with the 

 occurrence and production of sound in animated Nature from 

 man down to the humblest insect. Nature is full of living 

 sounds of a more or less musical character. . . These all 

 have their meaning, and the Naturalist asks. What is their 

 origin and source, their cause and their motive ? " Even if it 

 were possible, the answering of these queries would, the Doctor 

 said, occupy more time than was at his disposal then, and all he 

 could do was to offer some thoughts and suggestions. He defined 

 " music " broadly, for the present purpose, as " a succession of 

 sounds so combined and modulated as to please not only mtr ear 

 but some ear" — the object of music being the gratification of the 

 sense of hearing. " In the Mammalia, including man, and in 

 birds, sounds are produced by an organ specially adapted for the 

 purpose — the larynx, an open tube across which are stretched 

 certain structures termed the vocal cords. These are governed by 

 certain muscles, and can be thrown into vibrations more or 



