2 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



soon have run its course, giving place to other forces more subtle. 

 It is possible that the telephone will be superseded, and that it 

 will not be necessary to light our streets and houses by gas or 

 electricity. It is inconceivable, however, that any future century 

 can develope such a vast amount of the world's material as the 

 one just past has done. It is only within a short time that 

 doubts have been suggested as to the character of the ether with 

 which we are surrounded. If the whole fabric of science is to be 

 rebuilt nothing can deprive the last century of the claim for 

 clearing the foundations and for the invention of the tools by 

 which the new edifice is to be raised. In the meantime we must 

 be proud of the magnificent discoveries of the last century. It 

 would be impossible in this limited space to enumerate the 

 sciences which have been founded or advanced during that 

 period. Let us take the monumental discoveries of Pasteur. 

 During quite the latter part of the century, through laborious 

 researches with the microscope into microbic diseases he has 

 shown how many epidemics can be successfully treated, their 

 development arrested, and their recurrence suppressed. It is 

 difficult to realise that before these discoveries patients who have 

 had to undergo formidable operations, with much risk and danger, 

 can now with almost certainty come through them completely 

 and be rapidly cured. To annihilate pain was a dream at the 

 commencement of the century ; by the aid of antiseptics it has 

 now become a fact. The most delicate operations can be made 

 upon a living body, which on recovering sensibility, will awake 

 up as if out of a deep sleep, and without any recollection of what 

 has passed in the interim. Lord Kelvin's name will always 

 be associated with the doctrine of the conversion of radiant 

 energy, such as that which brings us light from the Sun, carrying 

 the waves of ether vibrations, by which Marconi's wireless 

 telegraphy instruments are worked. Through the development 

 of mechanical skill Astronomy holds a foremost place among the 

 sciences ; the discovery of Neptune by Leverrier and by our own 

 countryman Adams, aided by the improvements in telescopic 

 power, gave confirmation to the belief in universal gravitation. 



