liNAUGURAL ADDRESS 



BY 'S^ 



PROFESSOR W. H. BRAOG, " 



yi.j^., F. R.S., 



ADELAIDE UNIVERSITY, 8.A., 



BRISBANE, MONDAY, 11th JANUARY, 1909. 



THE LESSONS OF RADIO-ACTIVITY. 



Before I address myself to the subject on which I would speak to 

 jou this evening, there is one matter to which it is my duty and my 

 sad privilege to refer. 



Since the last meeting of our Association at Adelaide, in 1906, the 

 occupant of the presidential chair at that gathering, Dr. A. W. Howitt, 

 the man on whom we had been proud to confer the highest honour in 

 our power, has passed away; and there is a deep sadness in the fact 

 that he is not here to-night to perform the last duties of his office. 

 Those of us who were present at the meeting of three years ago will 

 remember with what vivid interest we looked up to our old and 

 venerated president, as he spoke to us of the great work of his life, and 

 told us of the difficulties and trials of exploration in a time gone by. 

 It was an inspiration to have before us a veteran of the old pioneering 

 days, one of the greatest of those famous old bushmen to whose labours 

 ■we owe so much of the development of our country. Our Association 

 will for ever treasure his memory; he was a man whom all Austral- 

 asians honoured, and a scientist whose methods and aims we would all 

 emulate. 



My choice of the subject of this evening's address has been 

 prompted by many considerations. The wonderful science of radio- 

 activity must be, and is, a centre of deep interest to all lovers of know- 

 ledge, inasmuch as it is at the same time lighting up new paths of 

 ■deeply interesting inquiry, and throwing a fresh illumination on that 

 with which we are already more or less familiar. Moreover, it is a 

 fundamental science, on which other sciences ultimately rest; and 

 every scientific worker has more than a kindly interest in its progress, 

 for he knows that liis own work may be, indeed must be, profoundly 



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