IS 
INAUOUK.AI, ADDHKSH. 
shuuM we not prefer to invite purpoKcly year after year repre- 
Kentiitives fiann the okier seats of learning to gatherings here, 
as suggested at the last Medical Cojigress. Wliat a l ich store of 
recent pi-ofessional experiences would be shed out liefore us, and 
liow woukl we, while ottering Austi'alian hospitalities, endeavour 
to recipi'ocate from what could be obtained from here as scientiti- 
cally novel. But this principle has .still another bearing. Tn 
.lava, for instance, pulmonary consumption seems never to become 
developed. More than that, a fortnight's steamer-\oyage can 
bring, at a moderate cost, the, phthisic invalid from Engkuid to 
Central America, for reaching, not too far inlaiul, any cho.sen 
elevations with light and pure air of easy j'espiration. The 
mountain-regions of extra and intra-trojiical Australia, as well as 
some of the elevated inland downs, come likewise within this 
hygienic scope, especially for sufterers from a home sutficiently near. 
Tui-jiing to geography, let here the questi(ju be asked, as con- 
cerning us most, how ca)i Australian exploration be advanced I 
Talent, enthusiasm and expeiieiice are availalile at any moment 
tor the purpose. Our ttrst historic cemtury has passed ; wdll the 
chronologic seculum also close, ere the Idanks on the maps are 
tilled up? If .so, it would be almo.st a reproach ; and 7iiav 1 be 
allowed to I’epeat what, in a geographic address, was saiil some 
few months ago : “The mainw<jrk of Australian land-explomtion 
devolve<l on nine travellers only ; now sj^ace seems only left foi- 
one more gi'eat exploi-er, to I'ank with the nine. Who will be the 
tenth to cai-ry off this last of lionors, or will it be di\ ideii among 
.several less amlntious competitors?"’ Well may the (eagerness be 
understood, to set the life on -winning such a prize ! 
AVhat a contrast, wdien we retlect that Pythe;is reached the 
Shetland Islands, lu.s “Thule,” at the time of Alexander the 
(ii-eat; and yet, that it should retpiire moi'e th.-ui two thousand 
years before Socotiu became c.-o'efully explore<l, and thei'cliy also 
its unique floral treasures and other jiatund I'iches disclosed, this 
having oidy been accomplished through action of the British 
.Vssociation by Professcti- Bailey Balfour within the last few 
ye.ars, though coui'ses of navigation were close to that islaitd 
.<ince gi’ey anti(juity, its endemic aloe-plant having been famed 
ah’eady to the ti’ading Phmnicians, but remaining through .-ill 
that time for sciejice purposes utterly unknown. 
Manifold attempts have been made, to map out the leading 
features of the vegetation oi vai'io'js countries mi series of cliai'ts, 
:ind to treat the stationary fauna simihu-ly ; if this was done 
from adequate matei'ial for every great region by united ett'oi'ts 
of those, locally best initiated, then might be constructefl C(»in- 
paratively complete zoo- and phyto-geographic atlases for the 
whole globe, and these would unfold at a glance the prominent 
types in a more impressive and instructive manner than ;iny 
<jther. Co-operation is needed, to accomplish this, and more 
