422 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dec. 



term may be now used synonymously with physiology) as a sub- 

 ordinate subject. Being, when properly considered, the most 

 complicated of all the subject matter debated at this Association, 

 it cannot be really subordinate to any, least of all to zoology and 

 botany, which it distinctly includes. It may be an open question 

 whether physiology be a branch of physics and chemistry ; it is 

 not an open question whether it includes the knowledge of the 

 characteristics upon which the classification of all entities that are 

 said to have life is based. 



u For the purposes of the great scientific question of this age, 

 the causes of the present order of life on the globe, it would seem 

 that the minutest accepted data of biological conclusion may have 

 to be revised under new methods. It is a saying among painters.. 

 ' That a draughtsman sees no more than he knows.' It is true 

 in the same way in natural science, that the real signification of a 

 known fact may be concealed for ages. Of this, pathology offers 

 many examples. The older naturalists, notwithstanding the great 

 learning of such men as Linnaeus and Haller, had comparatively 

 either very simple or hypothetical and incorrect notions of the 

 complexities of living beings and their constituent parts. Chemis- 

 try, the microscope, and the search for the origin of species, have, 

 in this century, widened the horizon of biological study in a way 

 not less surprising than does the dawn of day to a traveller, who, 

 having by night ascended some lofty peak, sees gradually un- 

 folding an extent and detail of prospect which he can generally 

 survey, though he cannot hope to verify each detail and visit 

 every nook in the brief time allotted to him to travel." 



One of the ablest workers in these subjects at present, and one 

 whose labors will live, after much that makes more sound now 

 has become obsolete, is Dr. Beale, who read a good paper on 

 " Life in its connection with cell structures and vital force." 



In the somewhat inverted order in which I have noticed the 

 sections, we come next to those of Mathematical and Physical 

 Science, presided over by Mr. Spottiswoode ; of Chemical Science, 

 under the presidency of Prof. Miller, of King's College, London ; 

 and that of Mechanical Science, whose president was Sir William 

 Armstrong of the guns. In the first of these sections a prominent 

 place was occupied by the aeronautic exploits of Mr. Glaisher of the 

 balloon committee, who, instead of slowly and laboriously collecting 

 meteorological facts on the surface of the earth, visits the region of 

 the clouds, and catches the rain and snow in mid-air, making us shiver 



