Z INAUGURAL ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 



willingness to lend a helping hand to the humblest workers in 

 biology and its outlying territories of applied science than your late 

 President, Doubtless there are many eminent men who are ani- 

 mated by the same generous principles ; but it is not given to many 

 to possess either the power or the prerogative enjoyed by Professor 

 Huxley. 



In the infancy of science it was quite possible for one mind to 

 grasp, not only the general conclusions but even also the minutest 

 known details applicable to each special walk of biological research ; 

 but now-a-days, no mind, however capacious, can possibly do more 

 than acquire a general knowledge of the natural history sciences and 

 sub-sciences as they actually stand. Special lines of research have 

 become laboriously — I had almost said, painfully — minute. Thus, to 

 add in the aggregate a mere handful of facts to the circle of the 

 known, it is now necessary that a worker should occupy himself for 

 months, or even years, with the study of a small natural group of 

 organisms. There is also this disadvantage for the special worker, 

 that whilst he is so occupied, it is next to impossible for him to take 

 due cognisance of the work of his fellow-labourers in other terri- 

 tories than his own. This is apt to beget narrowness of vision, 

 sometimes leading to very unpleasant consequences. Rare indeed is 

 it to find a man whose diverse gifts and sympathies enable him to 

 extend his visual range over all the best work being done by home 

 and foreign naturalists ; and yet, notwithstanding the immense 

 difficulties of the task, there are a few, whose names are well known 

 to you, who annually perform prodigies of labour in tliis respect. 

 To be sure some departments of science have had less justice done 

 to them by collaborators than others, but on this matter I shall 

 have occasion to dwell presently. 



Of late years it cannot fail to have struck even the general on- 

 looker in science how much attention has been paid to the lowest 

 forms of animal and vegetable life, whilst the higher and inter- 

 mediate groups have sufi'ered comparative neglect. It may be said, 

 with truth, that even science is not wholly free from the vagaries of 

 fasliion. The present tendency is undoubtedly an outcome dating 

 from the publication of Mr. Darwin's work " On the Origin of 

 Species." Not unnaturally, it was thought that a complete solution 

 of some of the more intricate problems of life could only be arrived 

 at by a thorough and exhaustive analysis of the phenomena dis- 

 played by the very lowest organisms. Some of my scientific friends 



