xxiv President's Address 



men, and one upon which Mr. Thomson in his work on the 

 prevalence of Phthisis in Victoria lays considerable stress, 

 and in a community where this disease has headed the mor- 

 tality list for the last twenty years, this question becomes 

 one of far more gravity and importance than that of com- 

 parative statistics. 



The present position of what is styled the germ theory 

 has not advanced to any great extent during the year. The 

 presence of germs and vegetable growths of fungoid or 

 algoid forms has been found to be much more common in 

 the blood and other fluids, as well as in the tissues and 

 mucous surfaces of the human body, than was formerly 

 supposed, and it has lately been shown by Mr. Butlin, 

 M.E.C.S., in a contribution to the Eoyal Society of London, 

 in March last, that so-called " germs," especially Bacillus 

 and Micrococcus, are nearly always present in the " fur" on 

 the tongue, " which," he states, " there can be little doubt 

 consists chiefly of these two fungi." 



Our two great museums — the one at the University, and 

 the other in connection with the Public Library — are getting 

 more and more complete each year. Since I last referred 

 to these institutions Professor M'Coy has added numerous 

 valuable specimens to most of the departments in the 

 natural history museum, and the collection has now become 

 most valuable for reference by students, as well as instructive 

 and interesting to the ordinary public, which, from the 

 returns published, appears to thoroughly appreciate Pro- 

 fessor M'Coy 's labours in this direction. There are now 

 nearly 45,000 specimens labelled and classified in the cases. 

 Six decades of paleontology, and three of zoology, have 

 already been published, and are highly spoken of by scien- 

 tific men in Europe. Professor M'Coy tells me he has an 

 additional volume of each branch now in the press. The 

 technological museum at the Public Library has been most 

 carefully arranged, and the classification into definite depart- 

 ments of over 30,000 specimens, illustrating applied science 

 and technology, including natural products, their application 



