PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS SECTION ' D. 81 



:SOME RECENT ADVANCES IN ZOOLOGY AND THEIR 

 RELATION TO PRESENT-DAY PROBLEMS. 



By H. B. Fantham, M.A. Cantab., D.Sc. Lond. 



Professor of Zoology, University of the Witwatersrand, 



Johannesburg. 



Presidential Address to Section D, delivered July 11, 1921. 



Introduction. 



To prepare and read an Address to a Section of an Association 

 if or the Advancement of Science is no light task, especially in these 

 days. A few months ago the columns of the scientific weekly, 

 "Nature," contained many letters from scientists and ordinary 

 laymen about the character of the addresses and papers read before 

 the British Association for the Ad\ancement of Science at Cardiff 

 an August, 1920. The majority of the remarks were critical and 

 somewhat derogatory, stating that the papers read were too abstruse 

 • or technical for the public and that the subjects chosen were not 

 •sufficiently "economic" in their application. Others wished Presi- 

 dents of Sections to give reviews relating to the advances in their 

 respective branches of science, instead of discussing subjects in their 

 branch of science with which they were especially familiar or in 

 which they were particularly interested. 



Personally, I have decided to endeavour to meet some of these 

 wishes, which apply to any and every country, by attempting a 

 review r of my branch of science instead of discussing with you 

 various aspects of animal parasitology in which I am more par- 

 ticularly interested, and I readily agree that some attempt should 

 be made to show how each branch of science can help us in our 

 difficult present-day problems. As to emphasising or confining 

 oneself solely to the economic or utilitarian aspect, while sym- 

 pathising with the wish, yet a warning must be given that at the 

 ibasis of national prosperity there lies something greater and deeper 

 "than mere economic or technical efficiency, that cannot be measured 

 "by the statistics of trade returns. Plato, centuries ago, wrote: 

 "Man, if he enjoys a right education and a happy endowment, 

 'becomes the most divine and civilised of all living things; but he 

 is the most savage of all the products of the earth if he is inade- 

 quately and improperly trained." Milton expressed himself on 

 this matter thus: "A complete and generous education fits a man 

 to perform justly, skilfully, and magnanimously all the offices both 

 public and private of peace and war." 



