Popular Science Lectures. 
INAUGURAL LECTURE. 
By G. H. Hawtayne, C.M.G., F.R.G.S., C.M.Z.S. 
HAVE been asked to deliver the first of a 
course of lectures on Popular Science under the 
^1 auspices of our Society, as I happened to be 
the proposer of a resolution at one of our meetings that 
such a course of lectures was desirable, and that the 
Society should make the necessary arrangements. I feel 
that in the performance of this duty I require your 
indulgence and support, because one may have been a 
science-student in one's youth, and may have learned to 
appreciate the progress of science and its manifold 
benefits, without having mastered the details of any one 
branch of it ; and in my case, I am conscious that I am 
addressing, or may hereafter be followed by gentlemen 
who are by profession scientists, and that it is almost 
impertinent in me to even touch upon what they are 
so thoroughly acquainted with. However I will to the 
best of my ability do what has been required of me, and 
I can only ask you to give me your kind attention and 
to be lenient in your criticism. 
I propose briefly to review what has been done in the 
advancement of scientific knowledge and the application 
of science to practical ends during the past eighty-eight 
years, and to refer to some instances of how much we 
are indebted to science for many of the advantages and 
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