46 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. (AUSTRALASIAN.) 



face floated the first organisms, whose descendants, 

 but little changed during all the millions of years 

 that have since passed away, still float and multi- 

 ply. Presently some of these animals found their 

 way down to the bottom, where all the debris from 

 the floating organisms collected, and here in still 

 water they lived and increased for a long time. 

 Slowly they invaded the rough waters of the coast 

 line, and at last gained a footing on the land. It 

 was plants which formed the array of invasion that 

 conquered the land. This army was followed by a 

 mob of camp followers and ragamuffins in the 

 shape of cockroaches and scorpions, who fed and 

 fattened on the plants, but who, notwithstanding 

 their boasted superiority, were quite incapable of 

 reclaiming a single acre of desert. The real victory 

 belonged to the plants, who with undaunted courage 

 led the congenial water to dare the vicissitudes of 

 temperature and moisture on land, and thus made 

 civilization possible." 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : " Notes on Geology and 

 Mineral Deposits in Certain Parts of West Aus- 

 tralia," by E. F. Pitman; "Further Evidence of 

 Glacial Action in the Bacchus Marsh District," by 

 C. C. Brittlebank, G. Sweet, and W. E. David; 

 "The Glacier Beds of Toolleen, Coleraine, and 

 Wanda Dale," by Evelyn G. Hogg; "The Early 

 1 1 istory of Tin." " The Pleistocene History of North- 

 ern Asia," and " The Bdellium of Scripture," by S. B. 

 J. Skertchly; "Notes of a Geological Reconnais- 

 sance on the Mount Kosciusko Plateau " and " Ar- 

 tesian Water in New South Wales," by J. Milne 

 Curran; "Some Notes on the Basaltic Dike and 

 Prismatic Sandstone Quarry at Bondi," by Robert 

 L. Jac-k ; " Notes on the Physiography of the Parish 

 of St. George, New South Wales," by E. J. Statham ; 

 " The Recent Coral-boring Expedition to Funafuti," 

 by T. W. E. David ; " The Geology of Mount Kos- 

 ciusko," by A. E. Kitson and W. Thorn ; " Oligo- 

 clase from Mount Anakies, Victoria," and " Rock 

 Specimens from near Mount Kosciusko," by A. W. 

 Howitt ; " Note on the Occurrence of Fulgurites in 

 the Sandhills at Kensington, Sydney, New South 

 Wales," by G. H. Knibbs, J. W. Grimshaw, and J. 

 Milne Curran ; "Notes on Some New South Wales 

 Rocks." by W. J. Clunies Ross; " Notes on the Aus- 

 tralian Tu'iiiopterid;i%" by W. S. Dun; "On Depos- 

 its of the Silver Spur," by II. G. Stokes; "An Ex- 

 amination of the Tasmanian Graptolite Record," by 

 T. S. Hall; "On the Geology of the Cow Flat Dis- 

 trict, near Bathurst," by A. C. Andrews. 



Also the following reports were presented before 

 the section: Reports of research committees on 

 "The Occurrence of Glacial Bowlders at Yellow 

 Cliff. Crown Point Station, Finke Valley, Central 

 Australia" and "The Evidence of Glacial Action 

 in tin; Port Victor and Ininan Valley Districts, 

 South Australia." 



I), /iiitloffi/. This section was presided over by 

 Prof. Chanel .1. Martin, of Melbourne University, 

 who delivered the presidential address, taking for 

 his subject "The Ili-tory of the Relations between 

 Morphology and Physiology during the Last Fifty 

 Years." 



In opening he made eulogistic references to the 

 services rendered to biological science by the late 

 Prof. Jefferv Parker, the recent president of the 

 section. It had been hoped that Prof. Parker would 

 be there to deliver the presidential address, but the 

 duty hud devolved at somewhat short notice upon 

 himself. He described the growth of the science 

 from morphology, which is now a separate science 

 from physiology, the scope of research in both 

 dip-ctions having within the last fifty vears, become 

 greatly widened. Morphology deals with the struc- 

 tnral conformation and anatomy of animals, physi- 



ology with the functional workings of the animal 

 system. During the last half century the discov- 

 eries in both these sister sciences have been of a- 

 most beneficial character to mankind, and the future 

 was full of possibilities. He then described tech- 

 nically some of the more prominent developments 

 that had occurred in recent years. 



The following-named papers were read and dis- 

 cussed before the section : " Plants of the Rabbit- 

 Infested Country, Bull's River, Southwest Queens- 

 land," by J. F. Bailey ; " The Plants of the Islands 

 of Torres Straits and the Neighborhood of Somerset 

 Cape, York Peninsula," by F. M. Bailey ; " Methods 

 of Fertilization of Some Australian Plants," by A. 

 G. Hamilton ; " The Occurrence of Eucalyptus Pul- 

 verulenta in Victoria," by A. W. Howitt ; " Notes 

 on Some Eucalypti of the New England Tableland," 

 by J. H. Marden ; " Nests and Eggs of the Honey 

 Eaters, or Meliphagius Birds of Australia," by A. G. 

 Campbell; "ZoSlogy in a Technical Museum," by 

 C. Finckh ; " The Growth of Vegetable Galls," by 

 W. W. Froggatt ; " Notes on the Histology of Podo- 

 carpus " and "The Distribution of Lizards in the 

 Pacific," by A. H. S. Lucas ; " Some Points of In- 

 terest in the Structure of Certain Coccids," by C. 

 Fuller ; " Enlarged Models of Australian Plants," 

 by R. T. Baker ; " Notes on the Flora of the Mal- 

 lee Districts of Victoria," by St. Elroy D'Alton; 

 "Notes on the Fertilization of Some North Aus- 

 tralian Plants," by N. Holtze ; " Classification of 

 Eucalypts based primarily on the Characters of the 

 Fruit." by J. G. Luchmann ; "A Statistical Account 

 of Australian Fungi," by D. M'Alpine;" Under- 

 ground Fungi of Tasmania," by L. Rodway ; " Notes 

 on the Flora of Bathurst," by W. J. Clunies Ross : 

 "On the Copper Plant (Polycarpce.a sjnrostylis)" 

 and " Notes on the Sacred History of Gingko," by 

 S. B. J. Skertchly : " Questions concerning the Tem- 

 perature of Plants," by W. Soutter ; " Suggestions 

 for a New Classification of the Eucalypts " and 

 " Host Plants of Some Australian Loranthi," by 

 Ralph Tate ; " The Algre of Victoria," by H. T. Tis- 

 dall ; " Some Notes on the Marsupial Brain," by J. 

 F., Flashman ; " The Transplantation of the Recur- 

 rent Laryngeal Nerve," by T. F. McDonald ; and 

 " Some Observations on the Flowers of the Order 

 Prolaceae," by J. Shirley. 



E. Geography. This section was presided over 

 by Sir James Hector, a past president of the Asso- 

 ciation and chancellor of the New Zealand Uni- 

 versity, who also holds the place of director of the 

 Geological Survey of New Zealand. The subject of 

 his address was "Submarine Geography." Since 

 their last meeting, he said, the results of the ex- 

 ploring expeditions equipped by the munificence of 

 the late Sir Thomas Elder and Mr. Home had been 

 made public, and the wonderful expansion of our 

 knowledge of central and western parts of the con- 

 tinent obtained through the intrepid journeys would 

 greatly assist the material development of the vastly 

 rich but hitherto neglected interior area of West 

 Australia. Another feature of great promise to 

 the future advance of geographical discovery in the 

 more difficult parts of the Australian continent was 

 the steady extension of the " artesian-well " system 

 into the arid areas of the interior, where the ab- 

 sence of water had not only prevented the settle- 

 ment of the country, but even its exploration, and 

 hail caused the loss of many brave and enthusiastic 

 pioneers under circumstances of intense personal 

 suffering. When the sources of underground-water 

 circulation were fully comprehended and utilized, 

 both exploration and occupation of large and almost 

 unknown areas would become possible. After deal- 

 ing with geographical researches conducted in differ- 

 ent parts of the world, he said the crowning event 

 that had absorbed the interest of geographers since 



