THE STUDY AND TEACHING OF BIOLOGY. 303 



fundamental ideas which lie at the base of his whole science. What 

 general and broad ideas should we have of the contractility of proto- 

 plasm if we only knew it in the highly-specialized form of a muscular 

 contraction ; or of its irritability, if we only knew it as exhibited in 

 the nervous apparatus of one of the higher animals ? It is quite true 

 that, without any breadth of knowledge, a man may collect, label, and 

 store away thousands of plants ; he may macerate and articulate the 

 most beautiful skeletons ; he may cut, stain, and mount, the most ex- 

 quisite microscopic preparations : but assuredly he is not likely to 

 do any work entitled to the name scientific ; such mechanical work has 

 its value, no doubt, but it is only preliminary to real scientific work 

 which latter requires wide knowledge and extended views, and is more 

 valuable the broader the foundation on which it has been built up. 



It is this mutual dependence of biological studies which appears 

 to me the justification of grouping together, as we do here, the study 

 of such a number of vast subjects in a single laboratory. By that 

 means each investigator will receive knowledge and assistance ^from 

 the other ; under such a system the desirable intercommunication of 

 ideas is rendered most easy ; and we are most likely to escape that 

 narrow specialism which every laboratory in the long-run has a ten- 

 dency to get into. Of course, no one person is capable of giving de- 

 tailed assistance in investigations in all the branches of biology ; but 

 our staff" of professors will doubtless grow, and meantime we shall, 

 I trust, by the associate and fellowship system of the university, have 

 at all times among us well-qualified men in every branch of biology ; 

 so that no one fitted for the task, and earnest and willing in its prose- 

 cution, who may come here to undertake any special research, will 

 fail to find some one able and willing to advise bim when he needs 

 advice, and to assist him when he needs assistance. 



What we want here, then, is men with the requisite zeal and train- 

 ing for investigation we care not whether classification, or morphol- 

 ogy, or physiology, or any other branch of biology is their specialty ; 

 all we claim is that they shall be able to work, shall mean to work, 

 and shall work we shall give no quarter to the indolent or ignorant : 

 the former we will not have on any terms, and the latter must enter 

 for the preparatory courses, and will not be allowed to occupy tables 

 set apart for research. Surely, if we select wisely, and find men to 

 work faithfully, we may look forward with confidence to the time 

 when we shall find ourselves in the condition of such laboratories as 

 those of some of the German universities, where, on account of the 

 high class of work, done in them, the ablest young men from all over 

 the world beg for admission ; where one finds, working side by side, 

 men from every civilized nation, and where, in the presence of the 

 great demand for admission, entry is esteemed a precious privilege. 



As to the special aid which we can offer to those who come among 

 us to engage in investigation, it will, of course, depend on two factors, 



