Dec, 1901.] Meeting of the Biological Club, 151 



tion of certain forms of life of utility to man and the possible 

 sources of food from various animals or plants not 5'et utilized 

 may be mentioned here. Clothing comes in for its share, as in 

 the methods for protection of silkworms, the saving of fur seals 

 and other fur-bearing animals from extinction, and the use of 

 various fibre plants. The successful growth of sponges, of pearls 

 and man}' other articles of domestic comfort or ornament are 

 connected in one waj^ or another with biological problems, and 

 their fullest development dependent on rational measures possible 

 when the biological conditions are known. 



In another way these questions enter into our social and 

 commercial life. The rights of property' in the migrant or semi- 

 migrant forms of life have biologic as Avell as legal basis and 

 some quite peculiar legal decisions would doubtless have been 

 very different had the biology been appreciated. The classifi- 

 cation of turtles as ' vermin ' since they are neither fish nor 

 fowl may be given as a case in point. Equally absurd and some- 

 times more disastrous are some of the rulings b}- cu'^toms officers 

 whose knowledge of biology was doubtless derived from a greek 

 lexicon or some equally good authority. vSuch quarantine re- 

 strictions as have been imposed upon certain products by some 

 governments show total lack of knowledge as to the possible 

 conditions of injurious transportation or el.se the misapplication 

 of them to serve some special end. 



The exclusion of American pork and American fruits from 

 certain countries, the controversy over the fur seals in Alaska, 

 the inconsistent laws of states or nations regarding game, are 

 some of the instances where it is evident that the law-making 

 power and the agents of diplomacy need to Ije re-enforced with 

 definite biological knowledge. 



But there is another phase quite distinct from the purely 

 utilitarian. Biological science opens up to us the facts of life 

 and solves some of the questions of the greatest interest to man- 

 kind. What is life? What its origin? What are the factors 

 that have controlled its development and the wonderful complex- 

 ities which we observe in its distribution and adaptations? 

 Are the forces that operate in the living organism merely physic, il, 

 mechanical and chemical or are there activities inherent in life 

 it.self or that operate only in the presence of the life containing 

 complex ? Certainly, in no other branch of science are there 

 problems more inviting. In no other has present knowledge 

 given greater inspiration or greater intellectual service to man- 

 kind. 



Thj field for acquisition of knowledge widens with each new 

 discovery. We no sooner gain foothold in some hitherto unex- 

 plored realm than we become conscious that beyond this lie still 



