.24 Inaugural Address by the President. 



bite my hand I let it drop to the ground, expecting it 

 immediately to bolt off. But such a thought seemed never to 

 have entered its mind. It apparently thought itself master of 

 the situation and when I poked my hat at it, it acted very 

 much Hke a playful kitten, sitting up on its hind legs and 

 jumping at the hat as if in fun. I got more than ever pleased 

 with my new-found pet and proceeded to re-capture it. When 

 suddenly it turned tail . . whew ! ! 1 The murder was 

 out, the laughter explained ; for feeling a most horrible 

 cfHuvium in my nose and smarting in my eyes I needed no one 

 to tell me what I had captured. A skunk, a beast I had smelt 

 before but never seen and handled and don't want to again. 



I am sure I cannot better close my lecture than in the noble 

 words in which Professor Charles Richet, of Paris, opened that 

 address on Nerve Waves which entranced the British Associa- 

 tion at Dover last September. 



" If, owing to the stupid prejudices and barbarian hate, 

 nations are still separated by divisions which may lead them 

 into fratricidal war, it falls to the men of science at least to set 

 the example of concord, in order that by their teaching, based 

 on reason, they may bring to all peace, sweet peace — the 

 chimera of the past, the reality of to-morrow." " To this 

 end nothing can be more effective than the great example of 

 the British Association and the Association Fran9aise, who, 

 within the space of a few days, are to meet twice as partners 

 in their fertile work : to-morrow on English soil, in this 

 hospitable town of Dover ; five days later on the soil of France, 

 on the shores you can see from here, where 5^ou will find the same 

 courteous and cordial welcome as our countrymen will receive 

 on this side." " Yet, after these words of peace must come 

 words of war — nay, its open declaration." 



" Men of science have not the right to stay within the closed 

 gates of their tower of ivory ; it behoves them also to wrestle, 

 and to wrestle unceasingly for justice, to turn the united forces 

 of all generous minds against the common foe, the worst enemy 

 of mankind, and this is ignorance. 



