I. 



Its History and Present Domain. 



In 1891, when the eminent head of this University, 

 Bishop Keane, extended to me the distinguished honor of 

 an invitation to deliver during the course of the present 

 Winter four consecutive lectures, upon any subject that 

 I might be pleased to elect, I was, for a time, in a degree 

 doubtful in my mind as to what department of science I 

 should make application for material to meet so impor- 

 tant a duty. 



Upon glancing at the subjects of lectures delivered from 

 this chair during former Winters by my most able prede- 

 cessors and upon inquiry, I discovered that the largest 

 attendances had rewarded those who had brought before 

 you some matter selected from man's civic 

 history or from his literature, and it was 

 urged upon me to adopt some similar coarse. 

 But the idea by no means coincided with my 

 own views in the premises, for, I argued, in the first 

 place, had the University any such plan in contemplation 

 it would never have asked a biologist to carry it out, how- 

 ever well he may have accomplished it; and, in the second 

 place, I felt I was called upon to face not only an audience 

 coming from one of the greatest scientific centers that 

 marks our civilization, but, in addition thereto, a faculty 

 and their pupils which represent an institution which 

 promises to be in its methods and aims one of the broad- 

 est seats of learning throughout all this broad land. 

 Under such circumstances it devolved upon me to select 

 for your consideration the craft to which I have devoted 

 more than twenty of the best working years of my life, and 

 still, in so selecting, would invite you into fields that not 

 only are pregnant with interest, but offer their full 

 measure of instruction, to say nothing of the influence 

 that instruction has upon all human pursuits and the 

 practical ends of everyday life. 



When properly interpreted and applied, the science of 



