THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION I3 



INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 



Bead before the Hamilton Association, Xovembey 7th, 1895. 

 BY PRESIDENT A. T. NEILL 



The influence of an association such as the Hamilton Associa- 

 tion should be in the highest and best sense educational. The goal 

 towards which its members are constantly f^triving is the attainment 

 of scientific truth. 



The operation of this association does not come in conflict with 

 the teachings of our schools and colleges, but becomes an auxiliary 

 in the dissemination of scientific knowledge, a field of labor 

 wherein the student who has acquired a theoretic knowledge may 

 pursue practically that particular branch of natural science which 

 best suits his taste and inclination. We are all given faculties pos- 

 sessing apprehensive as well as appreciative powers, and it is our 

 privilege, nay, it is our duty, to assiduously and studiously cultivate 

 those faculties, so that we may be the better able to fulfil the in- 

 tended object of our mission in this life, and I do not know of a 

 study more elevating, and at the same time more humbling, than 

 the study of natural science ; while it teaches the wonders of crea- 

 tion it also teaches the insignificance of man, who presumes to 

 measure his finite mind with the infinite, When once the desire to 

 know is awakened in an individual, and he feels the cravings of a 

 hungry mind, there and then only will his eff"orts be directed into 

 that particular channel of scientific research which commands his 

 special attention. There will be no insurmountable obstacles to 

 impede his progress, no weakening of purpose, but every energy, 

 mental and physical, will conserve to the accomplishment of the 

 end in view. The apparent difficulty which first meets the student 

 of science is the nomenclature. The adoption of Latin names in de- 

 scribing the genera, species, etc., in parts of a plant, is justifiable 

 where you consider that the field of science is as extensive as the 

 surface of the globe which we inhabit, and consequently embraces 



