xii pnocEEDiyas of the 



Eui'lington House, the scientific benefit derived by our Fellows 

 from the use of this library will be much increased from year to year. 



In the wish to call your attention periodically to the present state 

 of the science we cultivate, and to points which appear more especially 

 to require investigation, I said a few words last year with reference 

 chiefly to systematic and descriptive works. I would now, though 

 with much greater diffidence of my powers of handling the subject, 

 advert shortly to that important branch of our science which I alluded 

 to last year under the name of Biology. 



But, on the very threshold, a question arises as to whether this term 

 can be retained in the limited sense in which I believe it was origi- 

 nally proposed — that of the science of life, i. e. of the phenomena of 

 life, in contradistinction to the description and classification of living- 

 beings ; for it appears to have been recently extended to the general 

 designation of everything relating to living beings, in contradistinc- 

 tion to Mineralogy and other physical sciences relating to inorganic 

 matter, so as to include Zoology and Botany in aU their branches. 

 For the latter purpose, if a simple expression be really needed, the 

 term Biontology, or the science of living beings, coined by Jeremy 

 Bentham (although I do not find it in his published works on nomen- 

 clature), would, it appears to me, have been better, as being in direct 

 opposition to Palaeontology. I am aware, indeed, that language 

 cannot be controlled by argument, but follows authority or fashion ; 

 and if Biology continues to be used by Professor Huxley and other 

 distinguished public lecturers in the most general sense, it will be the 

 one which will be definitively attached to it. I would observe, however, 

 that Dr. WheweU, in his classification of sciences (Novum Organum 

 renovati^, 3rd ed. p. 140), separates Biology from the classificatory 

 sciences ; and even Professor Huxley on several occasions appears to 

 have the phenomena of life more especially in view when referring 

 to Biology. Several Continental naturalists also use Biology in the 

 limited sense above aUuded to. 



The science of life relates to the life of the species and to that of 

 the individual. The life of the species includes its origin, increase, 

 dispersion, migrations, diminution, and final extinction. This is 

 touching on delicate ground, which I could have wished to have 

 avoided ; but the subject has acquired that degree of importance, that 

 no biological investigations can now be considered satisfactory which 

 do not apply directly or indirectly to the great questions in agitation. 

 And first I must enter a strong protest against aU attempts to intro- 

 duce personal feelings and moral prejudice into the discussion. It 

 is quite unworthy of a searcher after truth, such as every naturalist 



