ADDRESS 



BY 



PROFESSOR W. H. FLOWER, 



C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.C.S., Pees.Z.S., F.L.S., F.G.S., 

 PRESIDENT. 



It is twenty-six years since this Association met in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

 It had then the advantage of being presided over by one of the most 

 distinguished and popular of your fellow-townsmen. 



Considering the age usually attained by those upon whom the honour 

 of the presidency falls, and the length of time which elapses before the 

 Association repeats its visit, it must have rarely happened that any one 

 who has held the office is spared, not only to be present at another meeting 

 in the town in which he has presided, but also to take such an active part 

 in securing its success, and to extend such a hospitable welcome to his 

 successor, as Lord Armstrong has done upon the present occasion. 



The address which was delivered at that meeting must have been full 

 of interest to the great majority of those present. It treated of many 

 subjects more or less familiar and important to the dwellers in this part 

 of the world, and it treated them with the hand of a master, a combina- 

 tion which always secures the attention of an audience. 



When it came to my knowledge that in the selection of the President 

 for this meeting the choice had fallen upon me, I was filled with appre- 

 hension. There was nothing in my previous occupations or studies from 

 which I felt that I could evolve anything in special sympathy with what 

 is universally recognised as the prevailing genius of this district. I was, 

 however, somewhat reassured when reminded that in the regular rotation 

 by which the equal representation in the presidential office of the different 

 branches of science included in the Association is secured, the turn had 

 come round for some one connected with biological subjects to occupy 

 the chair, which during the past seven years has been filled with such dis- 

 tinction by engineers, chemists, physicists, mathematicians, and geologists. 



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