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Here we have a practical proof that religion has no longer any fear of science. We see a Roman Catholic clergyman about to lecture on what was once considered the dangerous science of geology, and I am surprised we have not the Bishop ready to applaud him, but I am sure it must be owing to some accident that my friend Bishop Raimondi is not here today. (applause) In the sixteenth century, as we all know, the great astronomer Galileo was persecuted because he contended that the earth goes round the sun, and until quite lately geology was considered a more irreligious science than astronomy. This feeling was not confined to the Church of Rome. At the end of the last century an eminent Bishop of the Church of England ridiculed the pretensions of geologists — and we know that ridicule is often a more dangerous weapon than hatred; . . . by saying that for a man crawling on the face of the earth to pretend that he knew what was going on in the interior of our planet was like a gnat on the shoulder of an elephant pretending that it knew what was going on in the bowels of the huge animal. (laughter) But behold what progress! Here we have Mr. Woods, at the end of the nineteenth century, about to tell us living in Hong Kong what is going on in the bowels of the Malay Peninsula. (applause)
During this visit, some time before 9 February, Woods managed to visit Canton for five days. There he met the British vice-Consul, Dr. H. F. Hance, with whom he shared an interest in botany, and membership of the Linnaean Society. He cited Hance's work in his own publications. When Woods returned to Hong Kong, he wrote to a friend in Australia:
I had a little trouble in getting off to Canton. The war has upset everything, and the C. River is full of sunken ships and torpedoes, so that a special pilot is wanted to take one up, and he has to be obtained from the Chinese gunboats. However, I got up there and spent five days most pleasantly. I got all about the city without molestation except from the curiosity of the passers-by and the importunity of the beggars. My time went all the more pleasantly, as the Vice-consul is Dr. Hance F.L.S., the greatest authority we have on Chinese botany. He has a splendid herbarium and when tired of sightseeing in the city I