30 PEESIDENTIAL ADDEESS, 



themselves more and more compelled to become specialists, and 

 the motto of all Natural Science is "thorough," however minute 

 and limited the area of investigation. Our members now are 

 rather biologists than naturalists. But that jN'atural History 

 still maintains its place among the sciences is fully recognized, 

 in the fact that the other day among the selected fifteen for the 

 Fellowship of the Eoyal Society three were naturalists, two of 

 them being eminent marine biologists, and one of them being 

 my most distinguished predecessor in this chair, and whom we 

 congratulate heartily on his well-eai'ned honours, the Rev. 

 Canon Norman, D.C.L. 



The meeting of the British Association at Newcastle was the 

 most important local event of last year, so far as regards Natural 

 Science. With Professor Flower for its President, biological 

 subjects had their full share of attention. The botanical section 

 was especially prominent, and the papers and discussions were 

 of unusual interest. The head of the British Museum was able 

 to see provided here, through the munificence of Lord Arm- 

 strong and many other local friends, and the genius of our 

 veteran John Hancock, a Museum of Natural History, in the 

 completeness and yet simplicity of its arrangements, in the his- 

 toric interest of its older specimens, and the beauty and artistic 

 perfection of the Hancock Collection, such as is possessed by no 

 other city in the kingdom. The Museum is a fitting monument 

 to the memory of the successive generations of northern natural- 

 ists who, from the days of Tun stall, 150 years ago, have made 

 Tyneside illustrious as the nursery and home of Natural Science. 



For new discoveries on dry land we have now to go far afield, 

 and few lands save those of Central Africa and Arabia remain 

 unransacked by the biological collector. The sea alone, in its 

 depths, fathomed and unfathomed, will yet provide for genera- 

 tions to come scope for the researches of the biologist. Yet still 

 in nooks and corners easily accessible there is work to be done. 

 It might have been thought, for instance, that in the European 

 outliers (for such they really are) of the Canary Islands, the 

 seven folio tomes of Webb and Bertholet had left but little for 

 their successors to supplement. Yet in the last two years we 



