THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 
The President, Sir James Cockle, M.A., F.E.S., Honorary 
Member of the Eoyal Society of Hew South Wales, etc., 
delivered the following address : — 
1. I return my best thanks to the Society for long con- 
tinued indulgence. To have been called upon for so many years 
to preside over it, is an honor of which I may well be proud ; 
associated, too, as I have been with one whose attainments and 
zeal, coupled as they were with modesty and suavity, wiil not 
soon be forgotten here. The loss of our Vice-President, Charles 
Coxen, leaves us regrets. The recollection of a conversation 
in which he took part leads me to mention now a matter which 
I have long intended to bring before the Society. 
2. In a letter, dated Toowoomba, 19th September, 1867, I 
was asked to peruse a work in manuscript. I did so, and felt so 
much interested that I perused it again, and, shortly after, had 
it returned by post to its author. About that time I was much 
occupied, and by some mischance I did not write to the sender, 
to whom I have no further clue than the address, Toowoomba, 
and a statement in the letter that his business was that of a 
station superintendent. The high opinion which I formed of the 
merits of his paper will, I hope, be a sufficient excuse for this 
mention of his name, and I venture to invite Mr. William Haig 
Philp to send any communication of a scientific nature that 
he may have ready, to the Secretary of this Society, and to assure 
him that it will meet with due consideration. I did not feel 
competent to take upon myself the responsibility of advising 
him with respect to the publication of his paper, because it dealt 
to some extent with phrenology, a subject with which I am not 
familiar. It dealt, however, with other matters, and ably too, 
and I should be glad to hear that he had forwarded a paper to 
our Secretary. 
8. I have also unduly delayed bringing another matter 
before the Society. On the 30th of April, 1866, I read a paper, 
printed in the Queensland Guardian , May 9th, 1866, “ On the 
Fundamental Principles of Hydrostatics.” Of this paper, I 
sent a copy to one of our leading scientific authorities, Mr. 
William Walton, on a portion of whose researches I had taken 
the liberty of commenting. He replied, by a letter dated Trinity 
College, Cambridge, August 25, 1866. The Society will be glad 
to hear his opinion on a question so interesting as that of the 
constitution of matter ; and I have but little doubt of obtaining 
Mr. Walton’s pardon for giving here the following extract from 
his letter : — 
“In the article which I wrote on the Hydro statical Shell, I 
“ was, as you suppose, assuming the perfect continuity of fluids ; 
M &n hypothesis which may, no doubt, be erroneous.” 
