ADDKESS TO THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 



1879. 



BIOLOGY. 



TN responding to the honour which the authorities of the 

 -*- British Association have conferred in nominating me to 

 £11 this chair, I have deemed it best not to occupy your very 

 valuable time with any matter of detail at which I may 

 happen to have worked, but rather to offer to you a few 

 xemarks on questions which seem to me to have a general 

 l)iological interest. 



Last year my esteemed friend, Professor Flower, called 

 jour attention to the great name of Linn^us. I propose 

 this year to refer to Linnseus's illustrious contemporary, 

 BuFFON — not, however, in the character of a rival of Linnaeus. 

 Each was a man of genius, each did good work in his own 

 way — work still bringing forth fruit. It must be admitted, 

 however, that they were men of a very different stamp, and 

 if it is necessary to express a relative judgment with respect 

 to them, I should feel myself inclined to say that Buffon's 

 mind had the greater aptitude for sagacious speculation, with 

 an inferior power of acquiring and arranging a knowledge of 

 facts of structure. 



Various circumstances have concurred to favour our re- 

 collection of the merits of the great Swede, and to obscure 

 those of the French naturalist. The well-earned fame of 

 Linnaeus is kept ever fresh in our memories by the necessarily 

 frequent references to him in matters of nomenclature. On 



VOL. IL N 



