THE rRESlDENrS ADDRESS. 54 



taken place, on a small Etaie, in the Warren. We are indebted to 

 the Eev. Mr. Langdon foi* a most elaborate paper on "Freshwater 

 Molluscs," a Siibject of' the greatest importa,nce to the naturalist • and 

 to a distinguished lady member foi* a moat poetic essay on " The 

 Wonders of the Peep." The Rev. C. L. Acland, too, gave us a Capital 

 paper on the " Fertilization of Orchids," in Which he pursued a rtiOSfc 

 judicious course, and one which I strongly recommend to ail of our 

 members (and I trust they may be numerous) who intend to favouf 

 us with papers during the ensuing year, and that is to dwell rather OH 

 one single point of scientific interest, and explain it thoroughly and 

 intelligibly, than to attempt too much, and leave on the minds of youf 

 hearers a confused notion of having listened to a number of very 

 hard words. 



I shall hope to hear to night some discussion on a Very clever and 

 original paper by Mr. UUyett, in which he distinctly states 

 his belief in the reasoning powers of the lower animals, and 

 which he believes them to possess in common with ourselves. 

 Although I cannot follow him quite so far as that, I freely grant that the 

 lower animals possess "sense," "instinct," "promptings," (call them 

 what you will, for they are merely words which conceal our ignorance on 

 the subject), which we not only do not possess, but which we cannot even 

 conceive, which our minds cannot grasp. Mr. UUyett instanced the 

 migration of Birds, which he partly explained (I trust to his own satis- 

 faction) by the existence of reasoning powers, but can a reasoning power 

 tell a vulture that a camel lies dead in the desert when it is far, far out 

 of what we can conceive the limits of sight or smell ? Often at sea when 

 the sky has been cloudless and no spec visible on the horizon, have I 

 thrown a morsel of biscuit or meat into the water, and yet within a few 

 minutes hundreds of birds were hovering around the vessel, following 

 in her wake and watching hungrily for more. I might multiply 

 instances by the score, bnt to what good we simply do not know, we 

 can but wait patiently and strive to understand what our mother 

 nature teaches us. 



And to those who really mean to study the more easily solved 

 problem of Nature, I would say at once, "Buy a microscope," or rather 

 " Procure a microscope." Buy it if you can, by hook or by crook afford 

 it; save for it — beg for it, at any rate, get a microscope, and if 

 possible, a good one ; get a steady stand and good lenses, but do not 

 attempt at first to have them of too high a power, these are difficnlt 

 to work and not necessary for anything but the higher and more 

 elaborate researches of the Physiologist. A 1 inch, i inch, and a 

 i inch are sufficient to begin with, though they now make lenses as 



