250 Address of the President of the British Association. 



frame is formed, how sustained, how revived by sleep, one of the most 

 wondrous of all the incidents of our nature, what suffering is produced 

 by any pressure on the lungs, and yet how unconsciously we breathe a 

 million times in health for one in sickness, — I cannot but feel that our 

 Heavenly Father gave another proof of His essential character when, 

 in answer to the prayer of Moses, c Shew me thy glory,' God answer- 

 ed, 4 I will cause alt my goodness to pass before thee.' 



" In no department of science has the confluence of its cultivators — at 

 such annual meetings as the present — been more influential in advanc- 

 ing its progress in the right direction than in natural history. 



"Natural history is preeminently the science of observation; a sci- 

 ence made up of insulated facts and phenomena collected from the 

 earih, the air, and the waters, — first, carefully observed, and then dis- 

 tributed or generalized according to resemblances and analogies. 

 Every fact, if it be deserving such a description — that is to say, if rt 

 be truly observed and accurately stated — is welcome to the man of 

 science, though the observer himself may not be in a condition to recog- 

 nize the full signification of his own fact or its bearings on collateral 

 phenomena. But if this be the case -when one fact is communicated 

 to one man of science, such particulars when communicated to an as-^ 

 sociation like the present and discussed in its appropriate section of 

 scientific observers, speedily gain their right place and do their duty in 

 the steady advancement of natural science. The observer thus, for the 

 first time, made cognizant of the full value and importance of his own 

 observation, returns to his own locality and to his own particular de- 

 partment of science with renewed interest, with increased zeal, and, 

 perhaps, also with a better direction given to his observations. 



"The rapid progress of the scientific knowledge of the animals of 

 our own islands, and the great advance in the determination of the 

 British fauna, may be produced in illustration of the benefit which has 

 followed these assemblages, and the encouragement which the British 

 Association, as a body, has given to the investigation of the facts a^ 

 the publication of the results. 



nd 



" In no department of the living works of the Creator has this been 

 more manifested than in that humble, and, therefore, heretofore much 

 neglected class of the molluscous or gelatinous animals which people 



the seas around our island. Among the naturalists who have resc 



ued 



this branch of zoology from neglect, the name of Edward Forbes de- 

 serves early and honorable mention. The stimulus given by his suc- 

 cessful exertions with the dredge and with the towing net, in collecting 

 new species of Conchifera, Echinoderma, and Acalepa, and the bril- 

 liant generalizations which he has deduced from the fruits of these re- 

 searches, may be discerned in the beautiful monograph by Messrs. Al- 

 der and Hancock on the British Nudibranchiata, now in course o 

 publication by the Kay Society— in the interesting work on British Zoo- 

 phytes, just completed by Dr. Johnston— and in the new discovers 

 annually communicated to the Zoological Section of the British Asso- 

 ciation, by Dr. Allman, Dr. Thompson, and other eminent natural* 

 from Ireland ; by Prof. Goodsir and other excellent observers in bco • 

 land ; by Mr. Price, as the fruit of his observations on the sh ° reS he 

 Birkenhead ; and by Mr. Peach from the coasts of Cornwall. But 



