126 *- President's Address 



the travels of the expedition will in some measure repay the 

 ladies of Victoria for their chivalrous undertaking. 



With the year's history of the Royal Society of Victoria 

 and of our various scientific establishments, it cannot escape 

 our notice how much progress has been made in the colony 

 generally. In the mechanical arts we especially notice a 

 healthy and steady advancement. Our foundries and 

 engineers' establishments are constructing railway, marine, 

 and mining machinery of a class and at a cost that promises 

 soon to compete with our great factories at home. Manu- 

 factories are being rapidly established among us. Many 

 chemicals, for which there is a large demand in the colony, 

 are now manufactured here on an extensive scale. Earthen- 

 ware and pottery are produced in large quantities, and 

 great improvement is perceptible in the quality of the pro- 

 ductions during the last year. The distillation of essential 

 oils from our eucalypti, the manufacture of perfumery, and 

 the utilisation of the grass tree, from which alcohol and a 

 most useful gum resin are obtained in large quantities, are 

 now being carried on profitably ; and time is only needed to 

 render these undertakings the fountains of special produc- 

 tions, which will add much to the commercial prosperity of 

 our adopted country. 



Before concluding, I must not omit to give a brief 

 retrospect of the progress of science in the western world. 

 So many items of the greatest interest appear, if we glance 

 over the science harvest of 1865, that I must content myself 

 with a reference to only the most salient points. 



In the great advancement that has been made in physical 

 science, the one subject that seems to stand out beyond all 

 the rest is the result of the continued researches into heat 

 and radiation, by Tyndall and others. One point of pro- 

 minent interest in connection with this branch of science 

 appears to have been determined — namely, that the sun's 



