34 WILLIAM M. HAMLET. 



think, dry earth will have a long reign, then the zymolysis of 

 sewage will become the only rational mode of solving, what has 

 hitherto been a difficult and a costly problem. Let me in con- 

 clusion ask those amongst us here in Australia who are possessed 

 of wealth, leisure and qualifications, to lend their aid in the investi- 

 gation of problems such as these. Original work is still needed, 

 and it should be done by those who are unhampered by official 

 routine, and duties that absorb the whole of their time and energy. 



Epilogue. 

 Time was when this earth was but a crustless mass — a reeking 

 nucleus of vortex motion. .iEons after, Herculean Gravity pulls 

 the molecules together making for density, then comes cohesion, 

 •chemic combination and crystallisation, with life-giving Nitrogen, 

 Oxygen, Carbon and the rest. There pass long ages of Geologic 

 Twilight, and Life dawns — 



' Upon the firm opacious globe 



Of this round world, 



From Chaos and th'inroad of Darkness old.' 

 Man is evolved — product of organism and environment — attuned 

 to the music of the spheres to dominate the world, who, finding 

 gold to be a changeless object of beauty and his changeful life but 

 of short duration, looks out about him, searching, first for a Stone, 

 that may turn all the baser metals into precious gold, and then, 

 for an Elixir that shall prolong his earth-life indefinitely — 



'A tincture 



Of force to flush old age with youth, or breed 



Gold, or imprison moonbeams till they change 



To opal shafts/ 



Many centuries of fruitless toil are consumed in this pursuit ; 

 and the alchemist, as he is called, finds out some things that were 

 really useful for ends of lesser ambition, and so, based on these 

 results, are laid the foundations of Medicine and of Chemistry. 

 Skipping over the centuries — passing by the Mediseval Ages — and 

 calmly surveying our own times, we are beset by the problem of 

 the concentration of peoples in cities, nay, we are compelled to 

 concern ourselves, not so much in providing food for these populous 



