Xil PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



be a chemical rarity. Such studies may seem " fooHshness " 

 and " a stumbHng-block," but in most cases we can point at least 

 to some immediate gain, can imagine many more, and can live in 

 the faith that one day the " curious in God's handiwork" may 

 emerge into lights undreamed of even by themselves. 



We may endeavour to think out the lines along which 

 science progressed before the dawn of history. Far behind the 

 first Chaldean shepherd who watched the stars we may 

 conjecture that the wants of primitive man sharpened his wits — 

 under pain of extinction — to the point of devising some 

 mechanical or metallurgical improvement in his implements or 

 weapons. Then his wits, refreshed by the exercise, may have 

 grasped tho idea that they were themselves capable and worthy 

 of improvement by further additions to his knowledge. The 

 idea would be confirmed as it was found that proficiency in the obser- 

 vation of his surroundings was from time to time rewarded by a 

 new discovery which gave him an advantage over his fellows and 

 competitors. Then the natural bent of individual minds would 

 induce one to study one kind of phenomena and another 

 another. The early Abel would give his attention to the 

 conditions affecting agriculture, while the early Cain would 

 probably take to natural history in view of anticipated success 

 in hunting. The earliest civilisations are found to have been 

 equipped with no mean knowledge of mathematics and physics, 

 as can be proved by the applications thereof evinced by the 

 works they have left behind them. From this point history and 

 archaeology begin to help us to trace the progress of scientific 

 ideas, and in modern times claims of priority in discovery are 

 jealously watched and chronicled. We see, or we can imagine, 

 each elementary science not only growing but also throwing out 

 branches in every direction. Thus mineralogy becomes 

 petrography, petrography becomes stratigraphy, and stra- 

 tigraphy becomes geology. But to no single root can any 

 modern science be traced downward. Thus palaeontology 

 cannot have been produced without a previous marriage of 

 geology with biology. Although we may imagine the progress 

 of science to have been along such lines as we have sketched, 

 it may be said in general terms that the earliest ancestor of any 

 human being is not more hopelessly incapable of being traced, 



