PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS FERGUSSON. CXX1 



the photo-chemical processes that hitherto have been the 

 guarded secrets of the plants, but that will have been mastered 

 by human industry which will know how to make them bear 

 even more abundant fruit than nature, for nature is not in a 

 hurry and mankind is." 



After the physics and chemistry of the life processes are laid 

 bare, after metabolism and its derangements are understood, 

 then may come some idea of life and its origin. Present ideas 

 of origin may be summed: (1) that life is originating even 

 now around us, but beyond our powers of observation, (2) that 

 life had its origin in finite time, and (3), the view of Arrhenius, 

 that life had no origin in finite time but was coeval with matter 

 and energy at infinite time. If the physicist destroy our notion 

 of matter there will remain but life and energy; and it may 

 be that that dualism is more apparent than real, for we only 

 know life by energy change. 



The Present Trend and Suggestions. 



The solution of these problems necessitates long and con- 

 tinued research and that means time and money. I should 

 like to see our provincial colleges so endowed as to give much 

 more opportunity for research than at present. Sir .J. J. 

 Thompson, regarding students, has said: "I have always been 

 struck by the quite remarkable improvement in judgment, 

 independence of thought and maturity produced by a year's 

 research. Research develops qualities that are apt to atrophy 

 when the student is preparing for examination and quite 

 apart from the addition of new knowledge to our store it is of 

 the greatest importance as a means of education." 



Not only could we have more research for our students but 

 our professors should be so situated as to be able to engage in 

 research, and not be tied down attending to all the small 

 details of college work. 



A feature of our day has been the appointment of national 

 commissions on Conservation of National Resources. The 



