PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 9 



excellent opportunity for pleasant and profitable intercourse and 

 exchange of experiences. The Great Republic, as befits its 

 magnitude and seniority, has succeeded to a greater extent than 

 we have in emancipating itself from inherited tradition in educa- 

 tional matters, and in working out its own destiny along lines 

 which have been evolved in response to its own special needs. 

 Dr. Jordan is such a capable and brilliant representative and 

 exponent of advanced American thought in higher education and 

 science that his visit must have done much more to stimulate and 

 encourage Australians than it is possible to estimate satisfac- 

 torily by mere conjecture. The goal of the Americans is 

 substantially ours, and it has been good for us to be reminded 

 that there are other practicable routes to it besides the one we 

 may have been led to follow; and that a free interchange of 

 thought and experience may be expected to show the way to 

 fresh and higher ideals, as well as to improved methods of work. 

 In the second of two Presidential Addresses delivered to the 

 Members of this Society in 1894 and 1895, which will well repay 

 your perusal, Professor David summarised what was then known 

 of the Antarctic Continent, and discussed the prospects of 

 further exploration, little imagining that the future had in store 

 for him the opportunity of experiencing the hardships of that 

 inhospitable region, of sojourning for a year in Antarctica, and 

 of establishing scientific relations with the great ice barrier, 

 with Mounts Erebus and Terror, and other features of the great 

 lone land which give it some of its salient characteristics. The 

 lecture which Lieutenant Shackleton, leader of the British 

 Antarctic Expedition, 1907-08, delivered in Sydney on 6th 

 December attracted an audience of phenomenal dimensions, and 

 aroused extraordinary interest, which was greatly intensified by 

 the knowledge that Professor David and some of his pupils were 

 to accompany the expedition during at any rate one stage of its 

 operations. The recollection of the capable and eloquent way in 

 which the lecturer presented and treated the subject of his 

 discourse; and of the truly Davidian fervour which characterised 

 the Professor's reply to the enthusiastic demand of the large 



