Inaugural Address. 489 



that our water is far from being what it ought to be, 

 but all the animals reproduced in the journal are 

 normal inhabitants of healthy spring and brook water. 



Again, a case was brought under my notice where a 

 cow doctor was going around in Eastern Ontario pro- 

 fessing to cure animals suffering from an inflammatory 

 affection of the nose and mouth. He applied an 

 emulsion made, I believe, with linseed, and got out 

 what he called the " worms," which caused the disease. 

 These worms when submitted to me, I found to be 

 nothing more than the tiny seedlings of the flax which 

 had been squeezed out of the seeds used to form the 

 emulsion. 



But the special function of the local jSFatural 

 History society I regard as considerably more import- 

 ant than the general, and it is this, to acquire an 

 accurate knowledge of the plants and animals which 

 live in our immediate neighbourhood, and to maintain 

 a museum which shall not be a mere storehouse of 

 curiosities, but which shall enable any visitor to see at 

 a glance the flora and fauna of the surrounding 

 country. Before any problem affecting the relation 

 of animals to man can be attempted, we must 

 know the species with which we have to deal. 

 In the great Zoological Station at JSTaples large sums 

 have been expended by the director in getting accu- 

 rate lists of the species of animals and plants living in 

 the Bay of jSTaples published. jSTow this is work 

 which a local ISTatural History society can do better 

 than any other agency, if it sets to work in a systematic 

 manner. Our former President, Dr. Campbell, has in 

 this respect shown us all a good example by his untiring 

 labours in producing a complete list of the plants found 

 in the vicinitv of Montreal. I onlv wish that his 



