Y2 JOUENAL OF THE MlTCHELL SoCIETY [AuQUSt 



ISTew Jersey, and even in !N"ortli Carolina, both the State Board 

 of Health and the Public Health Service at Washington are 

 making studies. 



Fortunately for the present day scientist, the public is rapid- 

 ly coining to realize that an exhaustive study of what at first 

 seem to be even the most abstruse subjects may ultimately yield 

 results of far-reaching import, especially if they have to do with 

 natural laws or principles upon which all of our life and our 

 activities are dependent. The microscopist studying forms in- 

 visible to the naked eye may appear to be interested in matters 

 which are of literally small concern, but it was just such studies 

 that laid the foundations for all of our present knowledge of 

 bacteriology and verified the existence of bacteria themselves. 



Broadly speaking, the students of American fauna are di- 

 vided into two great schools: (1) Those who are interested 

 primarily in the study of principles of life, death, reproduction 

 and development, — experimental biology and morphology, and 

 (2) Those who are interested primarily in knowing the numer- 

 ous species themselves, their classification, distribution over the 

 earth, and the seasons during which they may be found. It is 

 more especially this latter phase of the subject to which I now 

 invite your attention : 



Parker and Haswell (1897) have divided our animal king- 

 dom into 12 branches or phyla. All of what we popularly know 

 as the " higher " animals, fishes, batrachians, reptiles, birds and 

 mammals (including man) fall into one of these 12 phyla. Were 

 I preparing this discussion for an audience of strictly technical 

 zoologists, scientific accuracy would demand that I discuss them 

 in proper scientific order, but as it is the function of this ad- 

 dress to put ideas into shape so that they may be understood by 

 persons not technically interested, I shall for the purposes of 

 this discussion, divide our fauna (animal life) into seven groups 

 as follows: 



[ I. Marine Invertebrates. 

 Invertebrates J ^ Fresh-water and Land Invertebrates— not insects, 

 (no backbone) ^ ^^^^^^^^ 



