THE PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 
27 
smooth pools, as, for instance in the river Stour, to a portion of it 
which flows just at the back of Hern Court, the seat of the Earl 
of Malmesbury, in Hampshire, and in many other cases. And it is 
well known to every Cornishman that the ordinary pronunciation 
in the county of our word " smear" is " smare," and also that the 
British for "blackberry" is also this same word " smaire." This, 
taken in connection with the fact that the people call the pool, not 
"dozmerry," but "durzmerry," will, I think, confirm the deriva- 
tion I have ventured to suggest. I could have wished that some 
archaeologist of the county had told us something about one of the 
oldest saints in the British Calendar — I mean St. Add or St. (Eth. 
The parish of St. Teath is evidently connected with this saint ; 
and there is reason to suppose that the name is incorporated in 
such compounds as "Staddon" heights, " Llanstaddwell," and 
perhaps in " Caer Edin," and also our own " Caradon." This 
word, which is a very primitive one, and easily discovered in 
various compounds, may be traced back to the old root represented 
in the Greek by "x#wv," in the Semitic languages by "heth," and 
was probably the origin of our own word " heath," and hence 
"heathen," signifying the soil or native ground of the inhabitants 
of every country. Being brought into the list of Christian saints, 
like St. Goven or St. Kifin, signifying a "headland," it came to be 
regarded from a purely Christian ground, and its origin was for- 
gotten. 
I pass on now to make a few remarks upon a subject brought 
under the notice of one of the sections of the British Association, 
and which is assuming such a character and claiming such atten- 
tion in our midst that it would not be right altogether to ignore 
it — I mean that which is commonly called Spiritualism. I shall 
not pretend to follow either Professor Barrett, or Mr. Wallace, or 
Dr. Carpenter, in their remarks on this subject. What I wish to 
say is this, that there is no need to question the possibility of 
certain phenomena produced by some agency, or the exercise of 
some power unknown to us ; but there is no authority whatever 
worthy of the name for connecting these phenomena with what 
is called the spiritual world. We may dispute aVoutrance the 
existence of such a world — I mean from a scientific standpoint ; 
there is no evidence whatever of its existence. We have a right 
to demand not only the ubi, but the quomodo of such existences as 
spirits; whereas if the evidence of such existences be referred 
