The immense force of habit, second only to the original type of constitution, and often overpowering even the original tendencies, is, nevertheless, formed by the silent working of influences, hour by hour and day by day, that are invisible and cannot be measured; that seem absolutely valueless, taken item by item, in the long account, and yet in the aggregate they will save or ruin the body and soul. A mother may instil the love of reading or the love of dress; she may form the habit of out-door exercise or the habit of gossip not by the set precept or even formal regulations, but by her own tastes unavoidably moulding the tastes of her children, and flowing out naturally into these external arrangements that inevitably reflect the ruling spirit or affections of the individual. Did the mother possess a hearty interest in the wonders of field and forest, of sea and sky, what a treasury of delightful intercourse might be found in the varied environs of our city! A mother’s love joined to the broad tastes and knowledge would never weary of the ceaseless questioning of childhood; the older the child, the closer and more influential would be the companionship. The holiday by the sea-side or amongst the mountains, so wasted now in idleness and frivolity, might be a rich harvest-time of delightful knowledge drawn from the treasures of land and water. It is, then, because of the great value that enthusiasm for natural science would be to woman, value to the individual life, to the home life, and to society, that I think this College will owe its greatest interest. From the fact that it is a Medical College it will derive its practical efficiency in cultivating a taste for science. A lady, now world-famous, once said to me before she began her noble career: ‘We Englishwomen can study anything under the sun that we desire to acquire. Not the slightest obstacle is placed in the way of our becoming learned to any extent; but any attempt to turn the knowledge to account, to work with it, is met with the bitterest opposition, is ridiculed, sneered at, frowned down. Yet the greatest impetus to study, the natural issues of study, lie in some noble career.’ It is from this tendency of human mind to pour its knowledge into some definite form that our Medical College, with its broad practical uses, may prove so valuable as a centre for scientific study. As it becomes older and stronger it will spread into those collateral branches as botany, zoology, comparative anatomy, which will form so many points of union for the professional and non-professional. Classes would naturally form in connection with it for nursing, sanitary visiting, for botanical and other excursions. There is no limit to its practical usefulness if the spirit that animates it be earnest, truthful, and intelligent.