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to attain a knowledge of the laws by which this world is influenced. (Hear, 
hear.) 
Mr. Pfoundes. — As I have seen a very great deal of various parts of the 
world, I venture to offer one or two remarks. The first thing that strikes one 
after having travelled round the globe several times is, what an immense 
amount, after all, one has to learn. I am quite aghast when I return home 
to find that young people, who have so much leisure on their hands, should 
waste it in various ways, without any attempt to study the interesting sub- 
jects so ably put before us in this paper. Even when we go among 
specialists, we find that, after all, the human intellect is a very shallow thing, 
and that many of those who indulge in high-flown theories are often unable 
to answer very simple propositions ; while in the East we frequently find 
people who, with all their want of science, are wonderfully intelligent on many 
matters about which we, at home, are still groping in the dark. There are 
two or three points on which I would add my mite to what has already been 
said. A short time ago, at the Society of Arts, I had occasion to remark on 
the question of meteorology in various climates, especially with reference to 
those in which tea and other plants of commerce can be produced. I think 
there is much useful work yet to be done in directing the energies we employ 
in the arts of cultivation ; the present paper ought to have the effect of 
stirring one’s mind somewhat in this direction. With regard to the question 
of forest denudation, we find, as has been pointed out, that in Afghanistan 
there are at the present moment great deserts where formerly there was a 
fertile country ; and the same thing occurs in Australia, where there are arid 
wastes in spots through which the river beds of former periods are 
distinctly traceable, and this is also specially noticeable in certain parts of 
China. In the southern States of America there are immense tracts of 
land that were once under high cultivation, but which have gone back 
to their original wildness. I have no doubt it would be possible to bring 
these districts back to culture, and in this direction the teaching of forestry 
is a matter deserving of attention. Again, with regard to the ques- 
tion of races, during my residence in the East I have frequently^had my 
attention called to the points mentioned by the lecturer. We find that 
the Coreans, who have gone among different alien races, have yet been able 
to preserve the purity of their own for four or five centuries, while there 
are other tribes that have been enabled to maintain their individuality for 
a long time. There are a number of other interesting points that must 
strike all specialists, especially that which relates to our soldiers and sailors 
abroad. On this subject I would suggest that the conditions of life under 
which these men are placed are of themselves very often the cause of a large 
proportion of the disease from which they suffer. If our English people, 
when they go abroad, would only throw off some of their insular customs, and 
try to adapt themselves a little more to the necessities of the different 
climates in which they have to reside, they might escape a good deal of the 
sickness to which they are subjected ; but, if they will continue to indulge in 
bottled “ Bass,” plum-pudding, and beef-steak, it is out of all reason to 
