THE PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 203 
light at the rate of two thousand miles per second, from his obser- 
vations of the obscurations of the satellites of Jupiter—not a bad 
estimate. In 1727 Bradley determined it by the aberration of 
the fixed stars at almost the same; whilst within our own times 
Foucoult and Fizeau, by rotary mirrors and wheels, have confirmed 
these astronomical observations. 
But Science in its true sense was expanding. It spread to 
Germany, Denmark, Holland; and in England Harvey discovered 
the nature of the circulation of the blood. 
Henceforth Science is not limited to one set only of observers, 
but is divided into innumerable sections. It is true that the 
study of the vast was the incentive to accurate thought; but the 
study of the minute has since become equally important. Various 
laws and theories were propounded and discussed, and we now 
arrive at the period of our own century. 
And let us pause for a moment to see what was going on, We 
English were not in Science the foremost nation that we are now, 
or rather among the foremost. 
Patronage was not extended, as it now, to scientific men. There 
were then no Cosmo, no Lorenzo de Medici, such as helped on the 
great Florentine schools. The Court was too besotted to under- 
stand that anyone could wish to learn, and the majority of those 
who had money spent it on their own pleasures. 
But with the era of the last generation springs up a better 
condition of thought. Longing to know spread over the great 
middle class, who are in Science the great backbone of the 
world. Fast came the perfection of the telescope, then the steam- 
engine, electricity, the microscope, and all the wonderful discoveries 
of Chemical Science. To give one instance of the accuracy and 
march of thought in this branch (Chemistry), let me explain the 
idea now held of one great period of our earth’s history to show 
how the balance is held. We believe the major part of the 
phenomena of Creation to be attributable to the consistent and 
persistent cooling of the earth’s body. Take then a period in 
which, though still hot, cooling is proceeding. It is the Age of 
Trees. Dank vegetation covers all the earth. To render this 
possible, the steamy atmosphere must be loaded with carbonic 
acid. It is the office of the trees to alter this (as they do ina 
minor degree to-day) into oxygen fit for the mammalian inhabitants 
