20 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. i 



accomplished. There could be no greater error. All we 

 know is but an incomplete fringe of what remains to be 

 known. Even if we had absolutely complete records of all 

 descriptions of animal and plant life in these Colonies — and 

 this we are very far from having at present — we should only 

 then be at the commencement of our observations. As Sir 

 John Lubbock well puts it — " to place stuffed birds and beasts 

 in glass cases, to arrange insects in cabinets, and dried plants 

 in drawers, is merely the drudgery and preliminary of study. 

 To watch their habits, — lo understand their relations to one 

 another, — to study their structure and intelligence, — to ascer- 

 tain their adaptations and their relations to the forces of 

 nature, — to realize what the world appears to them : these 

 constitute, as it seems to me at least, the true interest of 

 natural history, and may even give us the clue to senses 

 and perceptions of which at present we have no conception." 

 Where there is only one Society, as there is in Tasmania, 

 covering the whole range of physical and natural science in 

 all their multiform departments, such a Society certainly 

 ought never to suffer from any dearth of contributions of 

 useful work. 



In common, I fancy, with most scientific societies in 

 Australasia, the Royal Society of Tasmania has had its 

 periods of active and progressive work, alternated by periods 

 when its activity was not so great ; but it has been fortunate 

 in having had a relay of careful observers of Nature, and of 

 indefatigable workers in the cause of Science. Where so 

 many have worked so well, it may be thought somewhat 

 invidious to single out any names as worthy of special com- 

 mendation ; but I feel sure that all who are conversant with 

 the history and work of the Roval Society of Tasmania will 

 agree with me that of all its workers past and present none 

 have rendered greater service than the Rev. J. E. Tenison- 

 Woods, whose recent death was a serious blow to science, 

 and Mr. R. M. Johnston, whose genius, versatility, and 

 untiring industry in the cause of science are beyond all 

 praise, and who is undoubtedly at present the mainstay of 

 our Society. It is the lot of societies of this sort often to 

 have to depend very largely at times upon the work of some 

 two or three men who, indeed, seem to be indispensable to 

 its very existence. And yet it is cheering to observe that the 

 experience of the past shows that as, in the natural course of 



