106 PRESIDENTS ADDRESS—SECTION D. 
biological science, that I have not hesitated to bring the subject 
forward for the consideration of this section. 
Amongst the work in which this section is especially interested, 
the study of the remarkable fauna and flora of Australasia must 
take a prominent place. With the view of facilitating this work, 
a committee has already been appointed to prepare a catalogue of 
all scientific papers dealing with Australasian biology. A neces- 
sary part of the work will consist in the collection and exami- 
nation of all the living forms found within the Australasian area. 
This task of cataloguing an enormous series of plants and animals 
is, in many respects, an ungrateful one; it is one which is little 
appreciated by the public, and at which even scientific workers 
are sometimes inclined to scoff. Nevertheless, it is absolutely 
necessary that it should be done, for we know not how soon the 
knowledge of even the obscurest form may attain importance for 
scientific or economic reasons. We owe, then, our truest thanks 
to all those indefatigable workers who are content to devote their 
lives or leisure to some special group of living beings, be they 
beetles or diatoms. 
Having thus acknowledged our indebtedness, we may, perhaps, 
be allowed to point out some of the failings of specialisation. It: 
may be freely granted that the vast acquisitions of modern 
science render the evil of specialisation unavoidable—all who 
desire to extend knowledge must take up this cross. In biology, 
the rule, ‘“ Know a little of everything and all of something,” is as 
safe a guide as in other pursuits ; but the specialist is apt, in his 
enthusiasm, to lose touch with the workers in other fields, and to 
disregard the advances made in his subject as a whole. It is 
well to remind ourselves that the end of biological study is not 
merely to name and describe new species. In the light of modern 
science the species is but the expression of a passing stage of 
development of a long line of descent—the real objects ot interest 
are the individuals ; and the worker who takes the trouble to join 
together species by the demonstration of the intermediate links is 
more entitled to the gratitude of the world than the one 
who founds a fresh species for every local variety. We have, 
unfortunately, seen too much of the foundation of new species 
on imperfect data, or even on single mutilated specimens. The 
description of those superficial characters of the dead organism 
by which it may be identified is but the beginning of the 
biologist’s work, and one who rests content with this is like the 
traveller who, setting forth on a long journey, stays at the first 
inn on his road. The way may be long and difticult, but the end 
of the journey is not here—the journey lies not /o this but. 
through this, to the promised land of a more complete knowledge 
of the laws of life. 
To reach our end we require to study the organism as a living 
entity, to study it in relation to its surroundings, to follow the 
