20 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



of the construction of the Panama Canal. De Lesseps attempted the 

 task and failed. For every cubic yard of earth excavated by him a 

 human life was sacrificed to yellow fever or malaria. It was the suc- 

 cessful attack — some twenty years later — on the death-dealing mosquito, 

 under the direction of General Gorgas, that made possible the completion 

 of one of the most important engineering enterprises of modern times. 



Secondly, Science must combat the foes which have to be contended 

 with in the development of African agriculture. Africa is prodigal 

 indeed in the production of insect and other foes to cattle and to crops. 

 Science is already making an effective response to this part of the 

 challenge. But there is much that remains to be done. And we shall 

 be none the worse for the timely realisation by the pohtician and the 

 administrator of the contributions which Science can make. All too 

 often in the past settlement schemes have been undertaken and ended in 

 disaster in areas unhealthy to man, beast, or crops, when, if the scientist 

 had first been called in, precautions might have been taken which would 

 have averted the calamity. 



Finally, Science must harness the great resources of Africa. And 

 here there are suggested to us all the varied contributions which the 

 engineer can make in the work of development. Has not the Institution 

 of Civil Engineers defined the ideal underlying all engineering activity 

 as ' the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use 

 and convenience of man ' ? Africa offers abundance of opportunities 

 for the reaUsation of that ideal. It is not by working in isolation that 

 the engineer will realise it, but rather by co-operation with his colleagues 

 in other branches of Science, and by the correlation and co-ordination 

 of the essential data which they must do so much to provide. First in 

 the order of engineering development come the civil and mining engineers. 

 Their tasks are the provision of facilities for communication, for health, 

 for the conservation of agricultural assets, for the production of raw 

 material, and for the development of mineral resources. In their train 

 there follow, with the advent of industrial activity, the mechanical and 

 electrical engineers. Their tasks are to make the fullest use of the revolu- 

 tion in ideas of transport, including transport by air, which have resulted 

 from the perfecting of the internal combustion engine, and to secure the 

 maximum advantage possible from cheap production and efficient distri- 

 bution of electrical power. The day must come, to give a concrete 

 instance, when the Victoria Falls, with their immense water resources, 

 will mean much more for Africa than Niagara to-day means for America. 



