T[IK :\r()KPir()L()( IK 'AL METHOD AND RI^X^KNT IMJCHilJKSS 



IN Z(X)LO(a." 



IV Prof. (I. H. lIowKs, I). Sc. LL. D.. F. R. S. 



It is now twenty-oio-ht years since this association last assemliled in 

 Belfast, and to those present who can recall the meeting, tlie proceed- 

 ings of Section D will be ]>est renieni])ered for the deliviny of an 

 address by Huxley "On the hypothesis tliat animals ar(> automata, 

 and its history.'"' one of the finest philosophic products of liis mind. 

 At that date the zoological woi'ld was a})Out to emlmrk on a period of 

 marked activity. Fired l)y the intlucMice of the "Origin of Species," 

 which had survived a})use and was taking immediate effect, the 

 zoological mind, accepting tlic^ doctrine of evolution, had l)ecome 

 eager to determine the lines of descent of animal forms. Marine 

 observatories were in tlieir infancy; the (JJudh'iu/cr was still at sea; 

 the study of comparati\'e ein})ryology was but then becoming a science; 

 and wIkmi, refits-ting on this, we briefly survey the present held, we 

 can but stand astonished at the enormity of th(» task which has beeji 

 achieved. 



Development has proceeded on every hand. The leavciiing influ- 

 ence, spreading with sure effect, has in due course extended to the 

 antipodes and the East, in each of which poi'tions of the globe there 

 have now arisen a l)and of earnest workers pledged to the investiga- 

 tion of th(Mr indigenous fauna, with which they are proceeding with 

 might and main. Of the flapanese, let it be said that not oid}' have 

 they filled in gaps in our growing knowledge, for which they alone 

 have the materials at hand, but that, with an acumen deserving the 

 highest praise, they have put us right on first })rinciples. I refer to 

 the fact that they have shown, with respect to the embryonic mem- 

 branes of the common chick, that we in the West, with our historic 

 associations, our methods, and our skill, contenting ours(dves with 

 an ever-reciu"ring restriction to the germinal anni, have, by an error 

 of orientation, missed an all-important s(>ptum, displaced under an 

 ine(^uality of growth. 



« Address to Zoological Section of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, by Professor Howes, presid(»nt of tlu^ section, at Belfast, 1902. Reprinted 

 from Rei)ort of tfie British Assocaatiun, pp. ()lS-(>;;r). 



581 



