PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 23 



or, as I prefer to say, Natural Selection, has probably played 

 and is playing a part in the development of the animal and 

 vegetable life on our globe, but our ignorance on the subject 

 is great. Even if the theory of evolution is carried back to its 

 extreme limits, it must have had something to work upon, and 

 that something must either have existed eternally or been 

 created. But where creation ended and evolution began, it is, 

 and probably always will be, impossible for any man to tell. 

 The subject of Psychology has increased of late years to such 

 an extent at the British Association that a new section has 

 been constituted to deal with it. In spite of the admission of 

 women, in so many cases, to positions until recently open only 

 to the male sex, Cambridge has had the hardihood to deny 

 them an equal share of the rights of the University which it 

 was proposed to allot to them ! An interesting Scientific 

 Exhibition was held at Olympia recently under the auspices of 

 the Daily Mail, at which many new and other processes and 

 instruments were shewn, especially perhaps in matters con- 

 nected with electricity. A report recently issued on American 

 Museums shews some differences from our methods, especially 

 perhaps in the fact that the Americans carry out more in the 

 way of explorations than ourselves, the National Museum 

 having for instance at present an exploring party in Africa. 

 But this is rendered possible by the large bequests and other 

 gifts which they receive, which are comparatively small and 

 rare in this country. In Australia it has been decided to set 

 apart reservations for the preservations of the aborigines, who 

 are steadily decreasing. At the same time doleful prophecies 

 are being made about the future overstocked condition of the 

 earth by more civilized white nations who are said to be 

 increasing at a rate of something like 1 per cent, per annum. 

 There does not seem even at present to be a great super- 

 abundance of food available and if the population were doubled 

 in, say, 100 years, it is doubtful how they would manage to 

 exist. It is however our remote decendants who will have to 

 solve this momentous question, and who knows what discoveries 

 may be made in the next century ! In conclusion I would 



