34 John Graf fan : 



favourite departments of study amongst our members. The 

 gradual accumulation of carefully recorded facts by a multitude of 

 humble workers in these subjects, no less than the capacity for 

 broad generalisations possessed by a few brilliant minds, have 

 taught us the great antiquity of this earth and the gradual 

 evolution of its organic life. Darwin's work on board the 

 " Beagle " and his studies amongst his flowers and his domestic 

 animals must have appeared to many as a useless, if harmless, 

 amusement, and yet what department of human thought and 

 activity has not been influenced by them. 



It not unfrequently happens that in the attempts to solve a 

 difficult and complicated scientific problem a frontal attack is as 

 ineffectual, if not as disastrous, as our Generals found it to be at 

 Colenso. The foundations of the science of bacteriology were 

 laid by botanists who probably never dreamed that in the hands 

 of such men as Pasteur it was destined to create ,a revolution in 

 the treatment of many diseases and in our views of sanitation and 

 preventative medicine. 



In these times when the steam engine is disappearing to be 

 replaced by the electric motor we ought not to forget what we owe 

 to such men as Galvani with his apparently trivial experiments 

 with frogs, muscles, and bits of copper and iron. It will be an 

 unfortunate day for our material prosperity, no less than for the 

 progress of science, when the scope and nature of our scientific 

 work is limited to what at the time may appear of practical 

 utility and when the pursuit of truth for its own sake can no 

 longer claim its devotees. Let us hope that this Society will 

 always maintain its high traditi©ns, and will continue to produce 

 members as able, industrious, and energetic in scientific research 

 as John Grattan. 



