IXAUGUEAL ADDRESS. 
7 
In recent day.s many surprising and momentous discoveries 
were witnessed, but few can be alluded to here. Among tlio.se, 
which have a practical and extensive bearing on daily require- 
ments, some originated or were evolved through the genius of 
Edison, from whom, as one yet in the prime of life, still other 
inventions may be expected. Here I will refer only to that mode 
of luminosity, which may be regarded a.s much cosmic as telluric, 
and which now is brought within wide technical operation 
through particularly disintegrated coal glowing in ab.solute 
vacuum — not without some previous suggestions and experiment.s 
by Sidot and Swan. 
So also is it startling, to heai- the human voice now with 
teleiihonic celerity across a whole country, and hardly impaired in 
intensity. Through the combination of (Jray’s or Bell’s telephone, 
with Edison’s phonograjph, messages can be fixed — as you may 
be awai’e — in writing; while, by Hughes’s microphone, the souwl 
can be heard with extraordinary distinctness. 
Nations are now rivalling to possess the largest telescope, 
Melbourne still carrying the ixdm for the southern hemisphere. 
Indeed, the great equatorial instrument here, with its four feet 
mirrcn', is surpassed only by that of Lord Rosse, and equalled 
only by th.at of Paris. AstroJiomy became lately' in wondi'ou.s 
details connected with astrophysics and astrophotography. The 
a.stronomic department here, under our distinguished treasurer. 
Colonel Ellery’s able administration, will extensively share also 
in tlie now commencing international photographic charting of 
the sidereal heavens. A gigantic refractor-telescope has been placed 
in the cleai-est (»f air at one of the culminations, 4600 feet high, of 
tlie Californian coast-i’ange by a generous American mining 
operator and ama,teur-a,stronomer, on whom fortune had .smiled ; 
and thus within the last year or two were revealed some empyrean 
mai’\ els, nevei- beheld by mortal eye before ; the nebular ring in 
Lyra presented quite new and com23licated features, and additional 
stars at or near the cyclic aggregations were discovered by tlie 
astronomers of Mount Hamilton, Professors Holden and 
Schaeberle. Here may'^ be alluded to only one other result of 
these observer.s, attained under so exceptionally favourable cir- 
cumstances within their celestial area, namely the ellijitic nebula 
of Draco, with its fulgent hydrogen and nitrogen, is now shou'n 
to consist of coiled rings. New irlaiietoids may thus also from 
thence come within the range of vision, eight having been 
observed from elsewhere on the northern heaven during 1888 and 
at the beginning of 1889, thus bringing recorded numbers uj> to 
283. The power, which would be exercised by very large tele- 
scojjes placed within the tropics at aljiine elevations abo\o the 
frequent course of clouds in air .so much raritied, imiy be beyond 
all pre, sent imagination. More “about the comet.s, as siq)f)osed 
meteor-.swanns, which have entered the solar system,” might 
