It was with the greatest pleasure that I accepted the invitation of the Council to deliver the Wilbur Wright Lecture this year. Not that I count myself worthy to follow in the footsteps of the many illustrious men, British and American, who have delivered it in the past, but rather that I feel we are on the verge of discoveries and advances almost as spectacular as that flight of Orville Wright's, forty-three years ago, and that my peculiar experience may enable me to present to you some of the results of recent researches which have led me to the above somewhat prophetic conclusion.