ADDRESS OF THE COUNCIL. 
17 
eloquent speculations of Dr. Maiden, upon many 
of the peculiarities both of form and structure of our 
race ; and the historical details of the habits and 
customs of the German Tribes, who may be consider- 
ed as the immediate progenitors of the inhabitants 
of our native soil, entered into by Mr. Walter, will 
afford abundant evidence that the branch of Statistics, 
whether as relating to ourselves, to our forefathers, or 
to our species, has not been neglected. 
The Council are desirous of taking this opportuni- 
ty of directing the attention of the Society to the 
importance of Natural Science ; for whether we search 
the annals of our own immediate times, as preserved 
in the daily records of our parishes, townships, and 
other local authorities, for evidences of the existing 
state of the human race, or whether we scrutinize the 
chronicles of the days that are gone, and without 
this we can never know whether our state is one 
of advancement or the reverse, — still we have the 
same object in view, the knowledge of the Science of 
Man, and in the practical application of that know- 
ledge, the improvement of the condition of all around 
us. 
The Zoology of the county, as well as the Botany 
and Geology, has received considerable illustration in 
the admirable Introductory Lecture before alluded to, 
and the very curious and interesting details into 
which Mr. Lees entered in his Lecture upon the 
Affinities of Plants with Man and Animals, will 
scarcely have been listened to without exciting some 
desire on the part of the audience to become better 
