184 Ti'ansactions of the Society. 



A visible danger is better to face than the unknown : the one is 

 possible of antagonism, the other is a terror. It may happen that 

 now the Microscope has shown the minute bodies which accompany 

 disease and which may produce it, it may lead to the discovery of 

 the remedies. The competition in the research just alluded to is 

 immense, and new methods are constantly being invented. They 

 are great additions to science and may be the beginning of a new 

 era in the great profession of medicine. 



In concluding the former address which I had the honour of 

 delivering to you at our last anniversary, I had the sorrowful duty 

 of recording the death of one of the fathers of histological science, 

 of a man who went to his rest full of honours and with the well 

 merited reputation of a founder of a great theory. On this occasion 

 I cannot help alluding to the loss this Society and science have 

 sustained by the death of Professor F. M. Balfour, F.R.S., one of 

 our Yice-Presidents. It is a saying as old as Grecian tragedy 

 that those whom the gods love die young. Of rare promise, of 

 gentle nurture, of singular modesty, this young but advanced 

 student of nature will always be remembered with feelings of 

 sincere sorrow and well merited admiration. He was a thorough 

 scientist, and he laboured for truth's sake, caring little for that 

 personal distinction which a happy combination of circumstances 

 gave him at his early age. 



