REPORT OF THE CONFERENCE ON GENETICS. Nid 
of dollars! It is an utterly wrong use of opportunity to pursue such 
inquiries only. Iam not going to advise the Board not to look for those 
_ thousands of dollars or those bushels of wheat; but you will get those, 
and more also, if you realise that science must come first, and the applica- 
tion of science afterwards. In this large hall I am not sure that I can 
make my voice heard, even so far as Sir Thomas Elliott; but I trust there 
are some who can hear what I say and will take what I say to heart. 
Science must come first, application afterwards. The science of heredity 
must be pursued in the same spirit that astronomers pursue their science. 
What is the economic use of knowing the orbit of, say, Halley’s Comet, or 
the component gases of the Great Nebula in Orion, or the proper motion of 
the Pleiades inter se? What economic truth does astronomy teach us ? 
Why, that the sun never sets on the British Empire! Any other? No! 
Yet who would dream of curtailing the resources of our great astro- 
nomical institutes and those all over the civilised world? Their inquiries 
are not pursued in the hope that they may be converted into thousands 
of pounds. We look forward to the future. I am confident that the 
time will come when the people of this country, and every other civilised 
country, will know, as we know, that vast achievements can be attained 
if only the money is given. And now, in conclusion, as to the Con- 
ference. We have had every imaginable festivity; we have made vast 
experiments not only in hybridisation but in digestion also, and, as 
M. Vilmorin has said, the book of tickets is nearly exhausted. But I 
believe, joking apart, that there have been seeds sown here that will 
bring forth good fruit in the future. Ido not expect that I can live 
to see the days I am speaking of, but the younger generation will live 
to see those days; and in wishing prosperity to the Board of Agriculture 
we look to Sir Thomas Elliott, and to the head of his department, and 
to his subordinates, to help to bring that time to pass, and that quickly. 
Sir Thomas Elliott, K.C.B., said :—Mr. President, Ladies, and Gentle- 
men,—I confess that it was with some trepidation that I, a mere Civil 
Servant, accepted your hospitable invitation to dine with so many men 
of science this evening. My trepidation would have been increased if I 
had known beforehand that the toast of the Board of Agriculture and 
- Horticulture was to be discussed and proposed by so distinguished a 
man as Mr. Bateson. But I think I can say for the Department I 
represent that we do fully recognise the great work that Science has in 
front of her. Indeed, I would gladly associate the Board with every 
word that fell from Mr. Bateson himself. I think I may also say 
that the Board’s officials have done something in the direction that 
he has indicated. We have no concern, you may say, with men and 
women, but we have concern with other races of animals; and I can say 
this, and I would ask critics of the Department to remember it, that we 
took steps in years gone by, first of all to discover the truths of animal 
pathology, and then we set to work to apply those truths in practice. And 
what has been the result? We have absolutely stamped out from this 
country some of the most serious diseases which had decimated our flocks 
and herds. Mr. Bateson has referred to the time when we should arrive 
at the millennium of the human race. At any rate I can claim for the 
Board that we have brought the millennium of the bovine race much 
