THE 



POPULAR SCIENCE 

 MONTHLY. 



NOVEMBER, 1876. 



WHAT AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS HAVE DONE FOR 



EVOLUTION. 1 



Br Professor EDWAED S. MOKSE. 



I. 



IT would be pleasant indeed if only a lecture or an essay were ex- 

 pected from the presiding officer of the Section ; but an address 

 implies a great deal more, and the giver of it is not only expected to 

 be entertaining, where perhaps he never entertained before, but in- 

 structive upon grounds upon which, perchance, he has made but par- 

 tial survey. Among the many questions of sustaining interest, a 

 number of subjects intrude themselves. A general review of the 

 work accomplished since the last meeting of the Association would 

 seem an appropriate subject for discourse. Yet beyond my special 

 studies I feel quite incompetent to scan so broad a field. In this year 

 of Centennial reviews, one might naturally fall into an attempt to 

 sketch the growth of science and the work accomplished within the 

 last hundred years, but that would not only be too vast a field, but 

 would on the whole be unprofitable, since time-boundaries, like the 

 surveyor's lines bordering a State, have no definite existence in Na- 

 ture. The natural boundaries of oceans and sierras do indeed isolate 

 and impress peculiarities of thought and action upon man, as upon the 

 creatures below him, and for this reason we may with propriety ex- 

 amine the work of our nation in any line of investigation. Never be- 

 fore has the study of animals been raised to so high a dignity as at 

 present. While chemistry could point to its triumphs in the arts, and 

 geology to the revelations of hidden wealth in the rocks, zoology was 

 for the most part a mere adjunct to geology, or a means to thwart the 



1 An address delivered at the meeting of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. Read at Buffalo, New York, August, 1876. By Edward S. Morse, 

 Vice-President Biological Section. 

 roL. x. 1 



