6 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



of such studies, especially when conducted upon forms that are of 

 economic importance and Unsuitable for domestication, is obvious. 



With the development of these various lines of zoological research 

 a new specialization arose. The older boundaries, and with them the 

 older classification, disappeared, but since each new line required a 

 special technique for its development and led to such vast and diverse 

 acquisitions of knowledge, specialization was a necessary result. 

 And yet this specialization was in reality less isolating than the 

 apparent lack of specialization that had preceded it, since each new 

 line of study had its origin from a common starting point and leads in 

 its own way to a common terminal, so that the zoologist of to-day who 

 wishes to keep abreast of the problems of his subject must continue in 

 touch with at least the main results of all the lines of progress. And not 

 only so, but in the development of his technique and in the inter- 

 pretation of his results he will soomer or later find himself compelled to 

 look beyond the cell which he continues to take as the morphological 

 unit, facing phenomena for the explanation of which some knowledge 

 of what has been accomplished by the sister sciences of chemistry 

 and physics is essential. 



The specilization then that is characteristic of modern zoology 

 is in reality a specialization in method; the problems are broader and 

 more fundamental than ever before. The viewpoint to which each 

 special line reaches reveals to the observer a panorama, each part of 

 which joins and harmonizes with its neighbours making a single 

 picture: a picture, however, some parts of which are still dim and un- 

 certain and some altogether blank, but still with others distinctly 

 defined and in due perspective. And this view-point has been gained 

 largely by the work accomplished in the last fifty years. I am discus- 

 sing the achievements of Zoology, but credit must be give to the sister 

 science. Botany, for her share in the elaboration of the picture. The 

 problems of Botany are to-day either identical with or closely similar 

 to those of Zoology; the difference between the two is again essentially 

 a difference in method, and in some lines of experimental work Botany 

 offers greater opportunities than Zoology. Splendidly indeed have 

 Botanists made use of their opportunities and the work of Mendel, 

 DeVries, Correns and many others have contributed greatly in the 

 acquisition of our present standpoint, especially in regard to inherit- 

 ance. Nor should the marvellous achievements of Bacteriology be 

 forgotten. It is of interest that it was in the very birth year of our 

 Dominion that Lister, perceiving, with scientific insight, the signi- 

 ficance of Pasteur's work, laid the foundation of antiseptic surgery, 

 thereby revolutionizing that art. It was in 1876 that Koch described 

 his methods for obtaining pure cultures of bacteria, thereby rendering 



