ADDRESS. 21 



sliow that these defects are, in a large degree, associated with a brain 

 status lower than the average in mental power. 



A report presented by one of your committees gives the results of 

 observations made on 100,000 school-children examined individually in 

 order to determine their mental and physical condition for the purpose of 

 classification. This shows that about 16 per 1,000 of the elementary 

 school population appear to be so far defective in their bodily or brain 

 condition as to need special training to enable them to undertake the 

 duties of life, and to keep them from pauperism or crime. 



Many of our feeble-minded children, and much disease and vice, are 

 the outcome of inherited proclivities. Francis Galton has shown us that 

 types of criminals which have been bred true to their kind are one of the 

 saddest disfigurements of modern civilisation ; and he says that few deserve 

 better of their country than those who determine to lead celibate lives 

 through a reasonable conviction that their issue would probably be less 

 fitted than the generality to play their part as citizens. 



These considerations point to the importance of preventing those 

 suffering from transmissible disease, or the criminal, or the lunatic, from 

 adding fresh sufferers to the teeming misery in our large towns. And in 

 any case, knowing as we do the influence of environment on the develop- 

 ment of individuals, they point to the necessity of removing those who are 

 born with feeble minds, or under conditions of moral clanger, from sur- 

 rounding deteriorating influences. 



These are problems which materially affect the progress of the human 

 race, and we may feel sure that, as we gradually approach their solution, 

 we shall more certainly realise that the theory of evolution, which the 

 genius of Darwin impressed on this century, is but the first step on a 

 biological ladder which may possibly eventually lead us to understand 

 how in the drama of creation man has been evolved as the highest work 

 of the Creator. 



Bacteriology. 



The sciences of medicine and surgery were largely represented in the 

 earlier meetings of the Association, before the creation of the British 

 JNIedical Association afforded a field for their more intimate discussion. 

 The close connection between the different branches of science is causing 

 a revival in our proceedings of discussions on some of the highest medical 

 problems, especially those relating to the spread of infectious and epidemic 

 disease. 



It is interesting to contrast the opinion prevalent at the foundation of 

 the Association with the present position of the question. 



A report to the Association in 1834, by Professor Henry, on contagion, 

 says : — 



' The notion that contagious emanations are at all connected with the 

 diffusion of animalculte through the atmosphere is at variance with all 

 that is known of the diffusion of volatile contagion.' 



Whilst it had long been known that filthy conditions in air, earth 



