24 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
special science ; when the second Jussieu constructed his natural 
system of plants, perfect for all points but one, unless in details ; 
when the elder Herschel erected his great telescope at Slough, 
the discovery of the sixth and seventh satellites of Saturn being 
among the earliest results obtained; when the elder Gaertner 
founded carpology ; when the Danish Professor Otto Mueller 
established in taxonomy the genus Bacillaria, he, even as a 
physician, but little foreseeing, what solid basis he was gaining in 
one direction for the future extension of pathology; when 
Roxburgh settled in India, as the first to elucidate in a modern 
sense the flora of an extensive region by independent extra- 
- European researches; when Lavoisier published his Zvyazté de 
Chimie as the earliest main-pillar of the present system of 
chemistry, not long before he met his cruel fate ; when, amidst 
other contemporaneous exploits, it fell to the share of Vancouver 
to cast the first anchor in St. George’s Sound for vast extension 
of the British dominions in this continent. 
Australia, although one of the latest of original abodes of man, 
may yet also be destined perhaps to be the eld of some of man- 
kind’s greatest achievements. The Biblic words, Matthaeus : 
‘6 Tiths good for us to be here; let us build edifices,” is signifi- 
cantly applicable to advancing dwilized settlement through these 
fortunate dominions. 
We are to enter soon on the last decennium of this century, 
that secular epoch, which to all human foresight will remain the 
most expansive for discoveries in the world’s history, because it 
would seem, that in most directions not equal opportunities can 
re-arise for inventive foundation-research within the same space 
of time. Shall we be in the proud position, that other ages will 
say, ‘The nineteenth century has done its work for science 
well?’ And what can yet be accomplished towards its verge 
here and elsewhere? There will be some summing-up then of the 
gain of human thoughts so far. Can the geographic chart of our 
planet be finished by that time? Can the telegraph-wires be 
connected throughout all countries? Can the outlines of the geo- 
logic map of our globe be completed? Can the systematic records 
of the faunas and floras be mainly brought everywhere to a close ? 
Can an universal meteorology be evolved? Can chemistry ex- 
haust then already the display of elementary substances and of 
their principal coalescences? And can all this be helped on 
locally by this Association, if even only to a small extent ? 
When probably a decade hence this Union will inaugurally 
reassemble in our metropolis, perhaps to witness then also again 
another industrial fair of nations in commemoration of the linking 
together of two centuries, many whom we are gladdened to see 
yet among us will have passed away, resting under the sods ; but 
though then you will see them no more, they—like earlier con- 
temporaries of some of us—like Sturt, Mitchell, M. Stuart, 
