50 EEPOET— 1881. 



I feel that in quitting Section F so soon, I owe an apology to our 

 fellow-workers in that branch of science, but I doubt not that my short- 

 comings will be more than made up for by the address of their excellent 

 President, Mr. Grant-Duff, whose appointment to the Governorship of 

 Madras, while occasioning so sad a loss to his friends, will unquestion- 

 ably prove a great advantage to India, and materially conduce to the 

 progress of science in that country. 



Moreover, several other subjects of much importance, which might 

 have been referred to in connection with these latter Sections, I have 

 already dealt with under their more purely scientific aspect. 



Indeed, one very marked feature in modern discovery is the manner 

 in which distinct branches of science have thrown, and are throwinar, 

 light on one another. Thus the study of geographical distribution of 

 living beings, to the knowledge of which our late general secretary, Mr. 

 Sclater, has so greatly contributed, has done much to illustrate ancient 

 geography. The existence of high northern forms in the Pyrenees and 

 Alps indicates the existence of a period of cold when Arctic species 

 occupied the whole of habitable Europe. Wallace's line — as it has been 

 justly named after that distinguished naturalist — points to the very 

 ancient separation between the Malayan and Australian regions; and 

 the study of corals has thrown light upon the nature and significance of 

 atolls and barrier-reefs. 



In studying the antiquity of man, the archaeologist has to invoke the 

 aid of the chemist, the geologist, the physicist, and the mathematician. 

 The recent progress in astronomy is greatly due to physics and chemistry. 

 In geology the composition of rocks is a question of chemistry and physics; 

 the determination of the boundaries of the different formations falls within 

 the limits of geography ; while pateontology is the biology of the past. 



And now I must conclude. I fear I ought to apologise to you for 

 keeping you so long, but still more strongly do I wish to express my 

 regret that there are almost innumerable researches of great interest and 

 importance which fall within the last fifty years (many even among those 

 with which our Association has been connected) to which I have found it 

 impossible to refer. Such for instance are, in biology alone, Owen's 

 memorable report on the homologies of the vertebrate skeleton, 

 Carpenter's laborious researches on the microscopic structure of shells, 

 the reports on marine zoology by Allman, Forbes, Jeffreys, Spence Bate, 

 Norman, and others ; on Kent's Cavern by Pengelly, those by Duncan on 

 corals ; Woodward on Crustacea ; Carruthers, Williamson, and others on 

 fossil botany, and many more. Indeed no one who has not had occasion 

 to study the progress of science throughout its various departments can 

 have any idea how enormous — how unprecedented — the advance has been. 

 Though it is difficult, indeed impossible, to measure exactly the extent 

 of the influence exercised by this Association, no one can doubt that it 

 has been very considerable. For my own part, I must acknowledge with 

 gratitude how much the interest of my life has been enhanced by the 



