APPENDIX. 



ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT, 



PROFESSOR FLOWER, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., 



TO THE 



GENERAL MEETING 



HELD AT THE SOCIETY'S GARDENS, 

 June 16th, 1887. 



Nowhere has the progress which the world has made 

 during the fifty years of Her Majesty^s reign^ the comple- 

 tion of which we are now happily celebrating, been more 

 strikingly manifested than in the advance of that so-called 

 " natural knowledge " for the improvement of which our 

 Royal Society was instituted more than two centuries ago. 

 Although there have been, without doubt^ immense strides 

 in other directions — in morals^ in art, in historical and 

 literary criticism — I venture to say that none of these can 

 be compared with the marvellous progress that has been 

 made in scientific knowledge and scientific methods. 



The tangible results that have followed the practical 

 applications of mechanics, physics, and chemistry have 

 so deeply afi'ected the material interests of mankind, that 

 the progress of these branches of knowledge may seem 

 to put into the shade the wonderful changes that have 

 taken place in the kindred sciences. Nevertheless, I 

 think we may safely say that Zoology, in a certain sense 

 one of the oldest of human studies, has in these latter 

 times undergone a new birth, which has not only changed 

 the standpoint from which we view the special objects of 

 our studies, but has also spread its influence far and wide, 

 and profoundly modified our conceptions on many ques- 



