The President's Address. By Dr. C. T. Hudson. 
139 
ledge of law, or surgery, or navigation may bring a man into trouble ; 
but what possible barm can it do himself, or any one else, that he is 
content with knowing five Kotifera instead of five hundred? And 
yet if any naturalist were to study only Floscidaria, Philodina, Copeus, 
Braehionus, and Pedalion, it would give him the greatest possible 
pleasure, as well as an excellent general notion of the whole class. 
Let any tyro, at the sea-side, watch the ways and growth of a Plumu- 
laria, or of a rosy feather-star ; his knowledge of the groups to which 
they belong could certainly not be dignified even with the term 
“ superficial ” — “ linear,” or “ punctiform,” would be more appropriate 
— but the pleasure, that he would derive from such a study, could not 
be gauged by counting the number of animals that he had examined. 
It would depend on the man himself; and might, I should readily 
imagine, far exceed that derived by the study of a hundred times the 
number of forms in books ; especially when such a study had been 
undertaken, not from a natural delight in it, but from some irrelevant 
reason, such as to support a theory, to criticize an opponent, to earn a 
distinction, or to pass an examination. 
In truth, that knowledge of any group of animals, which would 
rightly be called superficial, when contrasted with the knowledge of 
an expert, is often sufficient to give us a satisfactory acquaintance 
with the most interesting creatures in it ; to make us familiar with 
processes of growth and reproduction too marvellous to be imagined 
by the wildest fancy ; and to unfold to us the lives of creatures who, 
while possessing bodily frames so unlike our own, that we are some- 
times at a loss to explain the functions of their parts, yet startle us 
by a display of emotions and mental glimmerings, that raise a score of 
disquieting questions. 
Moreover, there is another excellent reason why we should not 
confine our attention to one subject, and that is that even the most 
ardent naturalist must weary at times of his special pursuit. Variety 
is the very salt of life ; we all crave for it, and in natural history at 
all events we can easily gratify the craving. If we are tired of ponds 
and ditches, there are the rock- pools of our south-western shores, and 
the surface of our autumn seas. A root of oar-weed torn at random 
from a rocky ledge, an old whelk-shell from deep water, a rough stone 
from low- water mark, the rubbish of the dredge, each and all will 
afibrd us delightful amusement. It is w^onderful too, what prizes 
lurk in humble things, and how often these fall to beginners. The 
very first time that I tried skimming the sea with a muslin net, I 
picked a piece of green seaweed oJff the muslin, intending to throw it 
away ; but, seeing a little brown spot on it, I dropped the weed (not 
a square inch) into a bottle of sea-water instead. At once the brown 
speck started off and darted wildly round the bottle. It was too 
small to be made out with the naked eye, but by the time I had 
brought my lens to bear, it had vanished. I hunted all over the bottle 
and could see nothing ; neither with the lens nor without it. I was 
