ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS. 25 
reported therein are usually made to appear much more absolute 
in their results than is actually the fact, and a reader gradually 
gets to accept their conclusions as quite beyond question. In 
England there is a rare white butterfly which is seldom or never 
captured, except by little boys, for it cannot be immediately 
distinguished from the ‘ white cabbage’ butterfly, and so is only 
taken by those who are inexperienced in butterfly hunting.— 
Verbum sap. 
I have hitherto spoken entirely of matters involving new prin- 
ciples and capable of enlarging our general ideas. I now turn to 
the humbler task of referring briefly to some of those applications 
of science—which too frequently pass for science itself. No 
mistake is more fatal to progress than the idea that the discovery 
of application is as important as the discovery of principles, or 
of facts of general significance. The first matter I shall refer 
to is one on which an enormous amount of scientific knowledge 
has been brought to bear. I refer to the polyphase current. 
Within the year we have witnessed not only the approximate 
completion of the first instalment of the Niagara Electric Works, 
but the successful introduction of two and three phase plants 
elsewhere. Happily for the inventors, the greater number of 
the problems had been already worked out for optical purposes 
and form a part of the theory of “ harmonic motion.” The 
works at Niagara will always be remarkable for the extreme 
care which has marked every step of the undertaking. The 
Corporations involved have from the beginning spared no pains or 
money in calling to their assistance the best advice available, both 
for their hydraulic and electric works. Most of the machinery 
is novel at all events in its magnitude and in its structural detail. 
The most interesting point to me was the arrangement for “ float- 
ing” the long vertical turbine shaft, and so dispensing with a step 
bearing. Prof. George Forbes, who has had to stand a rather hot 
fire of criticism, is to be congratulated on the success of the under- 
taking. Though on a very much smaller scale, a transmission of 
power works is now almost completed within this Colony. In 
