ep 
William R. Hall. Long years of loyal and efficient service 
have left an enduring memory. 
Before I proceed to the subject of my address there is one 
important point upon which I feel bound to warn not only this 
Society, but other Scientific Societies as well. I refer to the 
enduring qualities of the paper on which scientific publications 
are often printed, and still more emphatically the ‘‘ paper” on 
which they are often illustrated. I allude especially to the so- 
called ‘‘art papers,” assuredly named on the principle “ ut lucus 
a non lucendo.” ‘The opaque, white, polished surface, which 
yields the most successful “half-tone” and “three-colour”’ 
printings, is at present only possible by means of a veneer of 
china-clay. Dust it is, and we are assured by experts that not 
many years will pass by before it succumbs to the fate which 
the highest authority tells us is in store for dust. For the 
purposes of advertisement, this is no disadvantage: the cynic 
may even maintain that the writings of the present day are, 
to the great benefit of the human race, recorded upon a fitting 
medium. But cynicism has no part in science, and every 
Fellow of this Society will agree that an age producing scientific 
records which cannot be made to endure, is an age to be rightly 
scorned by the generations of the future,—scorned as one that 
sunk to the lowest level of production, that, intellectually, 
owing its very existence to the noble standard reached by days 
yet earlier, took the benefits, and deliberately or carelessly 
neglected in like manner to assist 1ts successors. 
We have only to reflect upon the paramount importance of 
tradition in order to realize the weight of our responsibilities. 
Lloyd Morgan, discussing the trend of human development, 
speaks of a “ transference of evolution from the individual to 
the environment,” which “may leave the faculty of the race at 
a standstill, while the achievements of the race are progressing 
by leaps and bounds.” * Or, again, he contrasts the progressive 
evoluticn of the intellectual and moral edifice of society 
with the cessation of evolution, perhaps even the declining 
level of “the human builders that contribute in each genera- 
tion a few more stones to take a permanent place in the 
fabric.” + 
* «Wabit and Instinct,” London, 1896, p. 340. t doc, p. 345, 
