Introductory Lecture. 151 



exercises and strengthens the reasoning powers, and educates 

 the observing faculty. For these qualities, it is selected to be 

 a branch of professional education ; and those among you who 

 are intended for the noble and self-sacrificing profession of 

 medicine, will never regret having devoted a fair portion of 

 your time to the receiving of zoological, botanical, and geolo- 

 logical instruction. 



These are days when almost every man, sooner or later in 

 the course of his life, travels, either of necessity, or for pur- 

 poses of information and amusement. Delightful as it is to 

 explore strange lands, no small part of the pleasure and the 

 benefit of travelling is lost to the man who is ignorant of natu- 

 ral history. The differences between one country and another 

 do not depend wholly upon their inhabitants, their edifices, or 

 their towns, Nature, animate and inanimate, varies in each 

 region of the earth's surface. The differences strike even the 

 uninformed, — but in what manner? Vaguely, dimly, and 

 ignorantly. Hovv often, when we visit foreign countries, do we 

 meet with intelligent travellers, who, perceiving those differ- 

 ences, and unable to comprehend them, lament grievously 

 over their ignorance, and exclaim, " Would that we knew 

 something of natural history !" Often have I heard a like 

 exclamation uttered by the active-minded soldier or sailor, 

 who has longed for occupation in some far-away and lonely 

 station, whence all the sense of loneliness might have been 

 banished, had he been able to observe the wondrous world of 

 living creatures and the construction of the rocky soil around 

 him. Many of you will probably find yourselves under similar 

 circumstances, but, I trust, not under like intellectual difficul- 

 ties. Learn to observe and to know nature in good time, and 

 you will never be oppressed by listlessness, or wearied through 

 want of objects of interest w r ith which to engage the mind. 



Under conditions which to most minds induce hopeless idle- 

 ness, it is possible for you not only to make yourselves happy, 

 but to gain fame, if that be your ambition, and certainly to 

 contribute, in no small degree, towards the advancement of 

 science. Nay more, under these conditions, you may be in 

 the most favourable position for the perfecting of your own 

 knowledge, and the opening out fresh fountains of discovery. 



