368 



PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 



To THE Royal Society of South Australia, October 6, 1891. 



It Diay be within the recollection of Fellows that when the 

 Royal Society, a year ago, proposed to confer the office of Presi- 

 dent upon me, I disclaimed any fitness for it, on the ground 

 that my little knowledge of science is confined to a single item in 

 the great field of research, and that an item which is of special 

 interest to very few of my colleagues ; so that during my year of 

 office the chair would be unable to take that part which befits its 

 dignity in the various discussions of scientific matters that would 

 probably come before the Society. I felt this strongly at that 

 time, and I have felt it more strongly still as the time has come 

 on when it is the duty of the President to address his colleagues 

 at the annual meeting. Unfortunately, there is but one branch 

 of science on which I could address you without a certainty of 

 being ridiculous, and that branch of science belonging to Natural 

 History is one that (I regret to know) is the subject of special 

 study with very few of our Fellows. 



Under these circumstances — although I have, of course, not 

 thought of addressing you on any subject outside that which 

 alone I have attempted to investigate — I have yet endeavoured 

 to find some point from which to look at my own speciality that 

 may also be a desirable point from which to regard at least 

 other branches of Natural History. And, with this in mind, it has 

 seemed to me that it would perhaps be no uninteresting task, nor 

 yet an unprofitable one, to speculate upon the ultimate aim — the 

 final result of the science which is called by that name Natural 

 History — and to endeavour to place before our minds the particular 

 contribution towards that result which the present generation of 

 workers is more particularly qualified to render. 



Such an inquiry is certainly not ivanting in j^ractical imjyort- 

 ance^ because it is very clear that investigators who are aiming 

 at a given result, soberly and reasonably regarded as possible for 

 them, are infinitely more likely to render valuable service in the 

 field of science than those who turn their attention here, there, 

 and everywhere, and search, not for a recognised desideratum, 

 but for any discovery that may chance to present itself to their 

 gaze. 



In the absolute infancy of scientific work such "free lances" 

 are more likely to stumble upon what is valuable than when, at a 



