4 8 MY LIFE 



rang by the scientific humourists assembled. At Edinburgh 

 in 1871, Lord Waves, a well-known wit and song-writer, was 

 and gave us some of his own compositions, especially 

 that on "The Origin of Species a la Darwin" — which he 

 recited standing up and with very fine humour. The following 

 verses are samples : — 



"A very tall Pig with a very long nose 

 Sends forth a proboscis right down to his toes, 

 And then by the name of an Elephant goes, 



Which Nobody Can Deny. 



" An Ape with a pliable thumb and big brain, 

 When the gift of the gab he had managed to gain, 

 As Lord of Creation established his reign, 



Which Nobody Can Deny ! " 



And so on for twelve verses, and encouraging roars and great 

 final tail-w T agging. 



The most deplorable event in my experience of the associa- 

 tion was the choice of the late Duke of Buccleuch as President 

 for 1867, at Dundee ; proposed, as I understood, by Sir Roderick 

 Murchison and weakly agreed to by his colleagues. The Presi- 

 dent's Address has, in every other case, been considered a very 

 serious affair, requiring the labour of some months to com- 

 pose, in order to render it worthy of an audience consisting 

 practically of the best scientific intellect of our country. But 

 the president on this occasion evidently considered it a con- 

 descension on his part to be there at all. He began by telling 

 us that he had never written a speech in his life, and never 

 intended to; that he knew very little about science, though no 

 doubt it was very useful in its way. Of course it helped us to 

 find coal, " and that kind of thing," to support our manufac- 

 tures; chemistry, too, very useful, dyeing, manure, and many 

 other things — and thus he went on, with a lot of commonplaces 

 hardly up to the level of an audience of tenant-farmers, for, I 

 suppose, nearly an hour; and then there were complimentary 

 speeches! The address — or rather an address — was, of 

 course, printed, but I never read it, as I felt sure it would be 



