Vol. 59.] ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. lxxxiii 



been reached, if that fact or that conclusion be of evident benefit 

 to mankind at large, every lover of his science should welcome its 

 utility and do his best to encourage its use. 



Here, however, we cannot ignore the fact that it is impossible 

 that full use can be made of the results of any science until those 

 to whom such results would be of practical value are educated 

 at least in the principles of that science. And such education has 

 a double value ; it is not only of especial advantage to those who 

 intend to make use of the results of the science, but it redounds to 

 the benefit of the science itself, for it trains up a host of sympathetic 

 students all concerned in its advancement. 



We cannot fail to recognize that those sciences — such as 

 Chemistry, Physics, Biology, and the like — which are generally 

 acknowledged to be most intimately bound up with practice, and 

 an education in which is held to be absolutely necessary for success 

 in one or more of the arts or professions, are the sciences which 

 have the greatest number of students and are making the swiftest 

 progress. It is the height of absurdity to imagine that Geology 

 can, any more than any other science, possibly restrict its 

 activity to research alone. Rather may we say that the corporate 

 geological organism has three necessary functions — research, 

 practice, and education. So long as all three functions are natu- 

 rally and healthfully performed, so long will Geology live and 

 nourish. Whenever either function remains long unexercised, or 

 falls into disuse, there follows, of necessity, a weakness throughout 

 the entire organism, which must in the end become lethargic and 

 crippled, and fall behind in the race. 



When, on the other hand, all three functions are most vigorously 

 exercised, the progress of the science must be at its swiftest and its 

 surest. And this fact has been well illustrated in the history of 

 our science ; for whenever these three functions of Geology have 

 been most clearly appreciated and simultaneously energized by its 

 leaders, Geology has shone forth with an especial and peculiar lustre, 

 and has won the attention and regard of the world. 



Those who came from all parts of Europe to attend the 

 lectures of Werner, were drawn to him by his conviction that 

 Geology was one of the most useful of trainings not only for the 

 men of the mining and metallurgical world, but also for those who 

 were interested in all that concerns Man's relation to the earth in 

 general. They listened with delight and with profit to the brilliant 

 exposition of his far-reaching ideas, not only because they felt the 



