24 
INAUGURAL ADUKERS. 
Rpecial scieuce ; wlien tlie second Jussieu constructed liis natural 
system of plants, perfect for all points but one, unless in details ; 
when the elder Herschel erected his great telescope at Slough, 
the discovei’y of the sixth and seventh satellites of Saturn Ijeing 
among the earliest I’esults obtainerl; when the eldei' Gaertner 
founded caj-pology ; when the Danish Professor Otto Mueller 
established in taxonomy the genus Bacillaria, he, even as a 
physician, but little foreseeing, what solid basis he was gaining in 
one direction for the future extension of pathology ; when 
Roxburgh settled in India, as the first to elucidate in a modern 
sense the Horn, of an extensive region by independent extiva- 
European researches ; when Lavoisier published his Traite de 
Chimie as the earliest main-pillai- of the present system of 
chemistry, not long Ijefore he met his cruel fate; when, amidst 
other contemporaneous exploits, it fell to the share of Vancouver 
to cast the first anchor in 8t. George’s Sound for vast extension 
of the Bi'itish dominions in this continent. 
Austndia, although ojie of the latest of original aljodes of man, 
may yet also l)e destined perhaps to be the field of some of man- 
kind's greatest achievements. The Biblic woials, Matthaeus : 
“It is good for us to be here: let us build edifices,” is signifi- 
<'antly applicaljle to advaneijig civilized settlement through these 
hirtunate dominions. 
We are to enter soon on the last decennium of this ccnturv. 
tliat secular epoch, which to all hum;in foi-esight will remain the 
most expansive for discoveries in the world’s historv, because it 
would seem, that in most dii-eetions not equal opportunities can 
re-aiise for itiventive foundatioji-researeh within the same space 
of time. Shall we be in the proud position, that other ages will 
say, “ The nineteenth century has done its woi-k for science 
well T And what can yet be accomplished towards its verge 
here and elsewhej’e ? There will be some summing-up then of tiie 
gain of human thoughts so far. Can the geographic cha-i't of our 
planet l)e finished by that time? Can the telegmph- wires be 
connected tliroughout all comitries ? Can the outlines of the geo- 
logdc map of our glolie be completed ? Can the systematic records 
of the faunas and Moras be maiidy biought evei-y where to a close ? 
Can an universal meteorology be ev<iived ? Can chemistry ex- 
h.aust then already the display of elementajy substances and of 
Their principid coalescences? And can all "this be helped on 
locally by this Association, if eve)i only to a small extent? 
When probably a decade hence this Union will inaugurallv 
reassemble in our metnqiolis, peihap.s to witness then .also again 
anothei- industrial fail- of nations in commemoration of the linking 
together of two centunes, many whom we are gladdened to see 
y»'t among us will have piassed away, i-esting mider the sod.s ; but 
though then you will see them no nmi-e, they — like earlier con- 
temporaries of some of us — like Sturt, Mitchell, iU. Stuart. 
