66 Prof. Burnett's Jnaugural Address. 
in a glorious crusade to recover the holy land of science 
from the infidel dominion of ignorance and sloth. 
Gentlemen: In attempting to develop what he considers 
to be the legitimate objects of your Society; in attempting 
to trace, as it were in outline, what he considers to be the 
duties of his office, your professor of botany is aware that 
he has very inefficiently foreshadowed the object he had in 
view; and yet, insufficient as the sketch avowedly is, he is 
sensible that, in following it practically out, he shall often 
have occasion, as at the present moment, to claim your in- 
dulgence for much that has been done imperfectly, your 
pardon for much which has been wholly left undone: and 
yet he doubts not that, when zeal in your service is apparent, 
you will kindly, from your own resources, supply that which 
in him seems wanting. 
Your professor of botany is likewise sensible how much he 
must depend, how much he must be indebted to the co- 
operation and separate exertions of his colleagues; yet he 
doubts not that, from their well-known ardour in the pursuit 
of science, they will always befriend him in completing those 
accounts of medicinal plants, from time to time to be pre- 
sented to the Society, and for which duties none can be more 
competent than themselves: for thus conjointly we may hope 
to be enabled to collect such ample details, and such certain 
records, drawn from actual observations and experiments of 
the principles, properties, and powers of the vegetable ma- 
teria medica, as may go far towards perfecting the practice of 
medicine, and rendering, as Homer says, 
‘© A wise physician, skilled our wounds to heal, 
More worth than armies to the public weal.” 
"Intpdc yap avnp wodNGy avrakioc d\dwr, 
‘Tac 7 ixrapvey, ime’ iria dappaka waocety’. 
