First Conference 



great National Museum. Still, in many branches of 

 science private collections are indispensable, but not, 

 of course, unless they are used. Moreover, if I confine 

 my remarks to natural history, plants lose half their 

 interest when they are gathered, animals when they 

 are killed. 



In the streets and toy-shops many ingenious puzzles 

 are sold in which children, and even grown-up people, 

 seem to find great interest and amusement. What 

 are they to the puzzles and problems which Nature 

 offers us without charging even a penny? These are 

 innumerable. 



May I indicate a few subjects of inquiry, confining 

 my suggestions to points which require no elaborate 

 instruments, no appreciable expenditure? 



Many people keep pets, but how few study them! 

 Descartes regarded all animals as unconscious auto- 

 mata; Huxley thought the matter doubtful; my own 

 experiments and observations have led me to the 

 conclusion that they have glimmerings of reason: 

 but the subject is still obscure. I have often been 

 told that dogs are as intelligent as human beings, but 

 when I have asked whether any dogs yet realized that 

 2 and 2 make 4, the reply has been doubtful, or in 

 the negative. The whole question of the conscious- 

 ness and intelligence of animals requires careful study. 



Take again the life-history of animals. There is 

 scarcely one which is fully known to us. Really I 

 might say not one, for some of the most interesting 

 discoveries of recent years have been made in respect 

 to ants and bees. 



Coming now to plants. Anyone who has given a 

 thought to the subject will admit how many problems 



