President's Address for the year 1887. xxi 



Darwiij's great work, the '^ Origin of Species," saw the 

 light in 1859, and took the whole biological world by 

 surprise ; and since then its applications in the field of 

 biology, and its extension, in the hands of Herbert Spencer, 

 to sociology, have been subjects of the most profound and 

 abiding interest. 



As for other scientific advances, time would fail to tell of 

 progress in electricity, in spectrum analysis, in chemistry, 

 and a thousand other ways. But the amount of scientific 

 work going on at present in one direction may be roughly 

 indicated by the statement, made on the best authority, that 

 '^ more chemical analyses are now made in one day than were 

 accomplished before Liebig's time in one year." 



The present year is interesting from a scientific point 

 of view in several other ways. One hundred years ago 

 James Watt had but very recently perfected his famous 

 improvements in steam engines, and was struggling to get 

 his engines into use. Two hundred years ago exactly, 

 Newton was engaged in publishing the '' Principia," that 

 marvellous work that ended the perplexities of astronomers, 

 by once for all explaining the intricate motions of the 

 heavenly bodies as a necessary consequence of the known 

 laws of motion, and the newly enunciated law of universal 

 gravitation. Three hundred years ago, the laws of motion 

 had just been enunciated by Galileo, and the science of 

 statics, that had stood still since the day of Archimedes of 

 Svracuse had received an enormous advance throuoii the 

 enunciation of the proposition known as the parallelogram 

 of forces by the Dutch Engineer Stevinus. The period 1587 

 to 1590 witnessed the birth of modern experimental science. 

 Then, and not till then, did natural philosophers escape from 

 mediaeval misconceptions, and set out on a new and hitherto 

 unsuspected road, that has led to such glorious results. 



Ladies and Gentlemen, — I have on the present occasion 

 departed from the time-honoured practice of giving a resume 

 of the scientific work of the past year, and the progress of 

 the various local institutions. This practice, excellent and 

 useful in its way, had through long continued annual 



