2 PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
Geographical Exploration, or Geology. I shall not attempt 
to do this for Australasian chemistry, because the chemical 
work done here is perhaps both of too fragmentary and of 
too technical a character for a general audience. 
But first of all it is my painful duty to state that since 
we last met we have lost three of our most prominent 
officers. 
SIR ROBERT GEORGE CROOKSHANK HAMILTON, K.C.B., LL.D., 
who was President of the Association of the 4th session, 
held at Hobart, 1892, was born at Bressay, Shetland, and 
educated at Aberdeen, and was Governor of Tasmania from 
1886 to 1893. 
Sir Robert did much to promote the advancement of 
science in Tasmania, and was President of the Royal Society 
of Tasmania, from 1886, until his retirement from the 
Governorship in 1893. He took great interest in the 
meeting of this Association, held in Hobart, in 1892, and 
much of the success of that session was due to his personal 
efforts in making the preliminary arrangements, and to the 
active part he took in the proceedings of the Tasmanian 
‘session. His death took place in London, in April, 1895. 
BARON SIR FERDINAND VON MUELLER, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., 
who died last year, was our President at the Melbourne 
session, the second meeting of this Association, and a most 
helpful member in furthering our objects. 
An account of the life and labour of the Baron would 
take too long for such an occasion as this. The mere 
enumeration of the titles of his works and papers run 
into many pages of the Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific 
Papers. 
He was born at Rostock in 1825, educated in Schleswig, and 
studied the botany of Schleswig and Holstein from 1840 to 
1847. He came out to Australia in that year on account of 
threatened lung trouble, and made botanical expeditions 
