xii President's 4-ddress 



owes much to the often forgotten labours of his predecessors, 

 who exhausted the other possibilities, and branded the false 

 tracks with the words, ''^No road this way." 



Then, again, a vast deal of valuable but unobtrusive work 

 is continually being done in the way of collecting data, of 

 observing, recording, and tabulating facts which may at 

 some future time become the basis of vast and most important 

 generalisations, just as in bygone ages the elaborate and 

 conscientious observations of Tycho Brahe were the necessary 

 preliminary to the far-reaching generalisations of Kepler. 



The past year has been one of the comparatively 

 uneventful periods in the annals of scientific progress. The 

 work done has been great, but not brilliant; sound and 

 useful, but without startling results. We have not to record 

 any new departure of special importance, but merely an 

 honest continuance of the old work. Principles considered 

 doubtful or promising are being tested. Evidence is slowly 

 accumulating for or against. The established truths of 

 science are resting on an ever- widening basis, while theories 

 and suggestions of various kinds are being constantly tested, 

 by comparison with observed facts. Thus not only are the 

 bounds of knowledge slowly but surely extending, but 

 within those bounds the light is ever growing clearer, and 

 probabilities are steadily ripening into certainties. 



It is, I think, to be anticipated that with the extension of 

 knowledge and the spread of research brilliant discoveries 

 will become more and more rare. The early investigators 

 are like the pioneers on a newly -discovered goldfield. They, 

 so to speak, secure the great masses of precious metal, 

 leaving the impalpable dust which is finely disseminated 

 throughout the rock to be laboriously extracted by their 

 successors. Far be it from me to detract from the honour 

 due to the scientific worthies of old. They, doubtless, like 

 the pioneers on a new and inaccessible goldfield, encountered 

 difficulties and perils their successors know nothing of. On 

 the other hand, the field was to them virgin soil, that had 

 never been searched or tested before. 



