No. 55.— 1904.] 
ANNUAL REPORT. 
153 
strictly scientific and the more literary aspects of the East. He was a 
man of great energy and kept this Society together ; I, though I cannot 
complain of lack of energy, have certainly not enough, both to do the 
business of Colonial Secretary and also to stir you up as I then sus- 
pected , and now know, you need stirring up. Moreover, he used to give 
you presidential addresses ; and I did not feel in the least inclined to 
address you about those marvellously interesting mysteries of the East, 
of which you naturally know more than I do. So, last year I gave you 
no address, and this year I only do it at the instigation of Mr. 
Harward. 
There is, however, one subject of local interest on which by this 
time I feel myself capable of addressing you usefully,— a subject of 
which I know a little by previous training, and of which my work a& 
Colonial Secretary has caused me to know more. I propose to address 
you, therefore, on " The Use of Science in Ceylon." 
First of all, is Science of any use in Ceylon ? I can imagine the case 
of a man, say, an official charged with the heavy burden of looking 
after the revenues of the Colony, standing and scoffing at the idea of 
there being any use of Science in Ceylon. He might say it was all very 
well as an amusement, but that as a practical man ihe could not be 
persuaded to believe in the actual practical use of Science to us here, 
as a business people. Such a man, I venture unhesitatingly to assert,, 
would be entirely in the wrong. He would be like the cook who made 
his dishes, successfully enough sometimes, by rule of thumb instead of 
by the formulce of his cookery books. The fact is that it is only by 
studying everything, every single object of nature, with the minutest 
possible attention that one can accumulate a sufficient store of 
knowledge with which to put that object to the best possible use in 
the practical business of life. 
But as we cannot all be omniscient, practical men have to employ men 
of science to collect and classify facts which may then be used in 
practical work. In an almost purely business society, such as charac- 
terizes Ceylon, there are very few people who can devote time to special 
study. Consequently, almost all the scientific work which has been 
carried out, and necessarily carried out in the Island, has been done by 
the Government. I do not mean to overlook the few amateurs who have 
done good work. No one could do so who knew the admirable and 
really scientific work of the late Mr. Collett, whose collection of shells 
the Museum — again by the intervention of Government — has secured. 
Most of the real scientific work, however, more especially the collection 
and co-ordination of scientific facts, has been done at the instigation 
and at the expense of Government. And so, I think, it may not be 
without its use if I now briefly summarize the work which the Govern- 
ment has done in this way, and possibly give a hint of the way in 
which the Government might perhaps do still more. 
The oldest scientific institution in the Colony, if lam not mistaken, 
is the Royal Botanical Gardens, now flourishing at Peradeniya. There 
is an excellent article on the gardens by Mr. Willis, the Director, in 
Mr. White's " Ceylon Manual," and to this I must refer you for a more 
detailed account of their history. I can only touch briefly upon it now. 
The institution of the Gardens dates from before the British occupa- 
tion of the Island. There was a Dutch Government Garden in Slave 
Island, but when the British took over the Colony they were apathetic 
about this garden, and sold it after a few years' neglect. However,, 
after a short interval, we re-established a Botanical Garden in Slave 
