PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION D. 107 
long history of its race. The study of the life-history of the 
organism is, therefore, one of great importance ;' and though it is 
not work which can be hurried, but demands long and _ patient 
observation, it is a task which is a satisfaction in itself, and is 
fruitful in valuable results. 
In addition to our special work, dealing with the extensive 
fauna and flora of Australasia, we have the same fundamental 
problems before us as our fellow-workers in the Northern Hemi- 
sphere. We have introduced many of the familiar plants and 
animals of Europe—too many, indeed, as witness the rabbits. 
We have introduced, too, into our midst a large proportion of the 
parasitic diseases of Europe. Is not Victoria known to scientific 
students all over the world as the spot scourged beyond all other 
spots in the world, save one, by the insidious Lchinococcus, 
productive of hydatid disease? So, too, with reference to stock. 
I once had occasion, in New Zealand, to examine the internal 
parasitic diseases of sheep and in a single sheep found no fewer 
than ten different kinds of parasites, all of them forms which 
must have been introduced from Europe, for there are no 
indigenous parasites to attack sheep. 
Again, we have allowed many of the worst microbic diseases of 
the old world to acclimatise themselves with us. We have 
typhoid, scarlatina, diphtheria, consumption, and many another 
disease. Of the ravages of the typhoid parasite I need hardly 
speak, for will not this fell disease to-day claim and be allowed to 
take its score of victims from this colony alone ? 
There is still much work to be done with reference to these 
injurious forms of life, but when we attain a fuller knowledge of 
them we may hope at least to control their ravages, if not 
actually to exterminate them. 
During the last few years there has been a marked tendency 
for the most able workers in biology to concentrate their atten- 
tion upon questions of a fundamental character. The question 
of the nature of life and the elementary properties of living 
bodies have attracted the greatest interest, and though we are 
still far from being able to answer the question, What is life ? 
important advances have been made, sufticient to hold out ample 
encouragement to renewed efforts. When the microscope was 
appled to the study of animal and plant structure, it was found 
that all, except the simplest elementary organisms, were composed 
of vast numbers of units of structure to which the name of cells 
was given. It was recognised that the essential part of the cell 
was of a viscid material, neither solid nor fluid, colourless, 
and having the general appearance of a dusty jelly, though 
far from having the composition and properties of mere jelly. 
To this living matter the term protoplasm was applied, and 
for a long series of years it was deemed sufticient to refer all the 
characters of living bodies to the properties of the protoplasm. 
