PRESIDENTS ADDRESS. 



831 



And if, to-morrow, this obstacle be partl}^ surmounted— as is 

 likely enough — b}' further discoveries in the way of intracellular 

 mechanisms than the important ones already made, yet we may 

 be very sure that in eveiy forthcoming interpretation the notion 

 of adaptation or purpose will again re-assert itself, though for a 

 time it may be concealed under the disguise of a mere unexplained 

 residuum which refuses to be read into the next current mechan- 

 ical hypothesis. 



Does it not appear to be the doom of Biology to be for ever 

 endeavouring to reduce such an unexplained residuum ? It must 

 never despair of its ability to translate the facts into the language 

 of physical causation. Thus only does it fulfil its mission as a 

 branch of Natural Science which is " to distinguish the threads 

 of necessity that bind together the most disparate phenomena " 

 even though in so doing it may seem to be " explaining away all 

 life and unity in the world and putting everywhere mechanism 

 for organism even in the organic itself." 



But we are by no means compelled to assume that the method 

 of explanation thus pursued represents the only mode of appre- 

 hension of the facts, the only possible interpretation of their 

 meaning. It is indeed vain to look to Science for the recognition 

 of an aspect of living phenomena which it must of its own inner 

 necessity ignore. On the other hand, " there is little ground," 

 said Prof. Burdon Sanderson in 1889, "for the apprehension that 

 exists in the minds of some that the habit of scrutinising the 

 mechanism of life tends to make men regard what can be so 

 learned as the only kind of knowledge. The tendency is now 

 certainly in the other direction. What we have to guard against 

 is the mixing of two methods, and, so far as we are concerned, 

 the intrusion into our subject of philosophical speculation. Let 

 us willingly and with our hearts do homage to 'divine philosophy,' 

 but let that homage be rendered outside the limits of our 

 science." 



It is just such an intrusion of the fruits of a distinctively 

 philosophical interpretation of organisms into the domain of 

 strictly scientific speculation that tends to vitiate the modern 



