SECOND LECTURE. 



»o>^o<. 



THE NATURALIST'S OCCUPATION.i 



By C. O. whitman. 

 I. General Survey. 



I SCARCELY need remind you that the domain of Bi- 

 ology is a broad one, and that it has long since become 

 impossible for one person to master the different prov- 

 inces of knowledge embraced in it. The most that I 

 can hope to do, is to take you into one small section of 

 the great realm of life, and try to give you an inside 

 view of some of the problems now occupying attention. 



As this many-sided occupation may be approached 

 with almost equal advantage along any one of many 

 intersecting paths, a hasty general survey may be the 

 best means of getting the points of the compass. 



Let us take systematic biology as our starting point, 

 and from this as a centre find our way into the other 

 provinces of biology, with a view to understanding their 

 general features and relative positions. 



What is the chief end to be reached in the classifica- 

 tion of plants and animals } The general drift of bio- 



^ 1 Delivered at the opening of the Evening Lectures, July 9, 1889. 



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