6 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



includes four great telescopes, with objectives of 27 inches, 26i inches, 

 26 inches, and 24 inches respectively, to which will shortly be added a 

 24-inch refractor and a 60-inch reflecting telescope — surely a remarkable 

 astronomical equipment for so young a country. The stimulus of the 

 1905 visit, in which so many prominent European astronomers partici- 

 pated, has indeed borne rich fruit in the advancement of astronomical 

 work in South Africa. 



But perhaps our visitors will be impressed not least by the development 

 and consohdation of the scientific departments of our Civil Service, by 

 the magnificent Institute of Veterinary Research which the state has 

 created at Onderstepoort and the effective work which through its 

 scientific officers it is doing for the development of South Africa, and 

 by the remarkably efficient and well-equipped Institute for Medical 

 Research at Johannesburg, the credit of the establishment and main- 

 tenance of which falls jointly to the Government and the Mining 

 Industry. Significant also of the attitude of the state to Science, and 

 full of promise for the future, has been the establishment of a Research 

 Grant Board, which advises the Government on the practical measures 

 necessary for the encouragement of scientific research in the Union, and 

 acts as its agent in the distribution of grants in aid of individual 

 investigations. 



Nor have we reason to be ashamed of the positive achievements of 

 Science in South Africa during the past quarter of a century. Most 

 impressive, perhaps, regarded cumulatively, have been the advances made 

 in our knowledge of the diseases of plants, animals, and men, and of the 

 methods of preventing them. In 1905 we knew practically nothing of 

 the plant diseases of South Africa. In that year the first steps were 

 taken towards their scientific investigation. To-day a general survey 

 has been completed, most of the important diseases have been worked 

 out, and a highly efficient service for combating them is in operation. 

 In 1905 also the Transvaal Crown Colony Government voted £1,500 as a 

 first instalment towards the establishment of a laboratory for the investi- 

 gation of stock diseases. From that has sprung the magnificent body 

 of work in veterinary science, which has won world-wide recognition for 

 the Onderstepoort Institution which I mentioned a moment ago. More 

 recently there has been founded the South African Institute for Medical 

 Research, to which is allied the Miners Phthisis Medical Bureau. The 

 researches conducted there in the control of pneumonic infection, and 

 the advances made in industrial hygiene in the fight against silicosis, have 



