VIII BIOGENESIS AND ABIOGENESIS 271 



which the total number of deaths from scarlet- 

 fever alone amounted to ninety thousand. That 

 is the return of killed, the maimed and disabled 

 being left out of sight. Why, it is to be hoped 

 that the list of killed in the present bloodiest 

 of all wars will not amount to more than this ! 

 But the facts which I have placed before you 

 must leave the least sanguine without a doubt 

 that the nature and the causes of this scourge 

 will, one day, be as well understood as those 

 of the Pebrine are now; and that the long- 

 suffered massacre of our innocents will come to 

 an end. 



And thus mankind will have one more admoni- 

 tion that " the people perish for lack of know- 

 ledge " ; and that the alleviation of the miseries, 

 and the promotion of the welfare, of men must 

 be sought, by those who will not lose their pains, 

 in that diligent, patient, loving study of all the 

 multitudinous aspects of Nature, the results of 

 which constitute exact knowledge, or Science. 

 It is the justification and the glory of this great 

 meeting that it is gathered together for no other 

 object than the advancement of the moiety of 

 science which deals with those phenomena of 

 nature which we call physical. May its en- 

 deavours be crowned with a full measure of 

 success ! 



