14 THE president's ADDRESS. 



not carry him far in this fog. It is all very well to talk of a sub-King- 

 dom of ' hollow-gutted animals,' but what are they ?" And again speak- 

 ing of a most meritorious book by an excellent author, * If in the next 

 edition he would only bear in mind that even students are anything 

 but familiar with many of the technical terms so profusely scattered 

 unexplained through his pages, that even students are not all Grecians, 

 and that a knowledge of Greek very often lends little or no assistance 

 to one who does not already know the meaning of the term as applied 

 in the special case, he will greatly improve his book. We are per- 

 fectly aware of the necessity of technical torms, Science is impossible 

 without a strict nomenclature ; but we are also aware that if many 

 writers are misunderstood because they do not attend sufficiently to 

 those exigencies of technical expression, many also are thrown. aside 

 unread, because they will say nothing in their mother tongue. 



"Every one knows the dreadfulkind of mathematical writer or speaker, 

 who "rushes into the differential calculus on the slightest provoca- 

 tion." And we could name more than one biologist who rushes into 

 Greek, and spurns the plainer and more expressive English, as if his 

 scientific reputation depended on his not saying anything in common 

 language." 



The past year has witnessed the usual gatherings of the philosophic 

 and scientific intellects of the age. If not marked by any special 

 originality, they have developed more clearly than ever the strong 

 practical tendency of the age, to subordinate all the energies and 

 appliances of Science, invention, and association, to the correcting of 

 social evils and the elevation and purification of man. The British 

 Association has heard from their Fairbairn a grand epitome of the 

 progress of material science. The Dublin Social Congress has elicited, 

 with much crude speculation, a large amount of practical suggestions 

 for future operations. Death has done his usual work. Besides the 

 Royal Prince, whose departure we have already noticed, he has taken 

 away another of the thoughtful Teutonic blood. Baron Bunsen, in the 

 full exercise of his splendid labours, has passed away, declaring with 

 his last breath his profound belief in that Revelation he has so often 

 been accused of assailing. Sir Francis Palgrave, whose profound 

 antiquarian knowledge will long serve to lighten the labours of the 

 student of the Past, has been taken from us. Elizabeth Barrett 

 Browning has passed away from a wide circle of admirers ; and thousands 

 to whom the name of Italy brings back grand memories of ancient 



