THE AMERICAN 



MONTHLY 



MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL 



Vol. IV. 



Boston, September, 1883. 



No. 9. 



The Student of Nature. 



BV M. C. COOKE, M.A., LL.D., A.L.S. 



[Dr. Cooke has recently favored us 

 with a copy of an address delivered 

 in the year 1881 as President of 

 the Hackney (Eng.) Microscopical 

 Society. Its fresh and vigorous style, 

 and the food for thought to be found 

 in it, induces us to offer the following 

 abstract to our readers, who, we be- 

 lieve, will not be slow to appreciate 

 the facts and fancies so well pre- 

 sented. — Ed.] 



Whether you have done well or ill, 

 it is my duty, as well as privilege, to 

 occupy the honorable position which 

 you have assigned to me. I will not 

 dispute your right to obtain all the 

 work possible out of your President ; 

 if he accepts the privileges he is 

 bound to perform the duti'^s. Here 

 and there the candle is burnt at both 

 ends ; if not a thrifty practice, at least 

 it makes a great blaze. If your de- 

 mands are for an opening, as well as 

 a closing address, I will not demur. 

 To make the most of his opportunities 

 is commendable in a student. This 

 is an age of tall talk and long talk, as 

 the records of our Senate will here- 

 after testify. May it not also be, in 

 some sense, an age of work — of tele- 

 phones, perhaps, but also of electric 

 lights and torpedoes. 



Students we all are, and as such I 

 would address you. The wise man 

 knows and feels that he is only a 

 student, never a master. Whether he 

 will or no, the most unstudious theo- 

 retically, is a student practically. It 

 depends upon himself mostly whether 

 his studies are beneficial. If the 



mind be receptive, operative, well 

 disciplined, every morning will witness 

 the rising of a wiser and a better 



man We meet here to-night 



with all our individualities reserved, 

 but with a common object — the com- 

 mencement of a new 3^ear of mental 

 activity. We have reviewed the past. 

 We have taken stock, but none of us 

 are insolvent. We have passed the 

 balance of gains to the capital account, 

 and, with an enhanced principal, await 

 in confidence an additional increment 

 of interest in the future. We have 

 rescued our talents from the mud. 



And yet what diverse creatures we 

 are. We follow different occupations 

 by day ; we are interested in different 

 recreations at night. Herein lies the 

 advantage of societies with a catholic 

 programme. The individual man re- 

 tains his individuality. Every one 

 runs after his own butterfly, without 

 fear of his neighbor's corns. Special- 

 ists many of us are, but for the time 

 our specialities are forgotten. For 

 the time being we are students in 

 conclave. It seems to me that 3'our 

 President, at least, should forget that 

 he is a specialist when called upon to 

 preside over you. His sympathies 

 should be extended to all ; a general 

 — in fact as well as in name. 



Sometimes it may be true that the 

 specialist is a man of one idea. Oftener 

 the converse is the case, and the man 

 of one idea, as he is supposed to be, 

 has a wide experience and extended 

 sympathies. One-idea men are very 

 rare amongst biologists. It is a luxury 

 they cannot afford themselves. The' 

 relations of one section to another is 

 so intimate, researches in one direc- 



