Sir David Prain 73 



correlated art still codifies and employs the knowledge thus supphed. 

 But the technique now puts this new knowledge to doctrinal use by 

 instructing the art it serves. 



Technical and philosophical studies thus luove in opposite directions 

 until a point is reached at which they enjoy community of interest. 

 Alhance is inevitable. Equally natural is the adoption of the view, 

 characteristic of the latter half of the nineteenth century, that the 

 "advancement of science" is the only activity which deserves academic 

 distinction. 



Academic distinction, however, even at the close of last century, was 

 not the only incentive to philosophical study. Some there were who 

 regarded the search for truth as its own reward. With others the public 

 good was a sufficient stimulus to effort. Enquiry into the effects of things 

 organic, which chiefly concerns us, was thus, a generation ago, under- 

 taken by three distinct agencies: Natural History, directed to the pro- 

 motion of knowledge by increasing and co-ordinating it, as a prehminary 

 to considering how best it may be improved ; Academic Science, engaged 

 in the advancement of natural knowledge, with a view to its employ- 

 ment for discovery and doctrine; and Apphed Biology, occupied in 

 seeking new and sifting old knowledge, with the object of furthering 

 economic ends. 



Economic Biology endeavours to serve the various human arts as 

 their own old technical studies did. But that service is now rendered 

 solute nee abjecfe, and the new technologies devised to carry it out 

 derive their methods from Academic Science and their inspiration from 

 Natural History. 



There need be no antagonism between agencies whose outlooks difier. 

 Any misunderstandings that may occur find their explanation in a 

 pardonable inabihty to appreciate unfamihar points of view. The 

 natural historian must regard his facts from the standpoint of their 

 bearing on the duties of his study to natural knowledge as a whole; 

 the academic enquirer may concentrate his attention on the new facts 

 he secures; the economic biologist must regard his facts from the stand- 

 point of their value to the industrial interests he desires to assist. 



The great impediment to cordial intercourse between Academic 

 Science and Natural History during the closing generation of last 

 century was the obstinacy with which the latter agency still pursued 

 the always difficult and often thankless tasks of determination and 

 classification. The Natural History of Animals was allowed to retain 

 academic status under the style and title of "Comparative Anatomy," 



