X PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



thinkers began to lay aside sordid aims and devote themselves ta 

 the study of elements, atoms and molecules, without regard to 

 their pecuniary value, that a light dawned on chaos. The 

 light has now ceased to dazzle, and we begin to see clearly the 

 benefit to be derived from a scientific knowledge of the composi- 

 tion of the articles used in our industries, foods and medicines, 

 of the air we breathe, of the poisons that threaten us, nay even 

 of the distant stars. Modern chemistry has showered benefits on 

 the human race infinitely greater than if it had commuted lead 

 into gold or revealed the secret of eternal youth. There are 

 those who think they can see in synthesis the promise of food 

 for a fully populated earth without the necessity for the cultiva- 

 tion and destruction of the animal or vegetable raw material, 

 and who dream that the abolition of poverty and the solution of 

 the economic and social problems which perplex the nineteenth 

 century may after all come from this branch of science rather 

 than from philanthropy. 



Biology, somewhat arbitrarily divided into zoology and 

 botany, appeals to what theologians call " the carnal mind " 

 chiefly as the study of our own comforts, regarded for the most 

 part under the heads of food, clothing and service. No one can 

 over-estimate the value of these considerations ; but there are 

 higher aspects of the study. Can it be denied that we are 

 gradually attaining, by its aid, to juster views of the nature and 

 origin of man ? We do not despise the study of the humblest 

 of living organisms, and we are rewarded by the way, and with 

 the generous help of sister sciences, by hints from which we 

 learn to annihilate pain, to ward off disease, to increase the 

 supply of food and to ameliorate in a hundred ways the condi- 

 tions of life. This Society has bestowed a good deal of atten- 

 tion on zoology and botany, owing to the presence among its 

 members of authorities eminent in both, and younger members 

 can see the advantages to be derived from the study of biology 

 for its own sake. 



Geology is, to my mind, the most practical, as well as the 

 most ambitious of modern sciences, and yet the term " geolo- 

 gical " is frequently used as if it were the antithesis of "prac- 

 tical." If it be not practical to enquire into the causes of 



