2 LECTURES 



biology will meet what I have just claimed for it, and it 

 is to its study that I now invite your attention. 



Biology, at the present time, has come to include that 

 group of sciences which have to deal with all those 

 phenomena which are exhibited on the part of living 

 matter, and, as so defined, is sharply marked off from 

 what may be termed the abiological sciences; as for ex- 

 ample astronomy, chemistry and physics. 



A moment's thought will make it clear that such a 

 definition as the one just given will not only include the 

 study of man and his works, both past and present, but 

 likewise such special studies as, for instance, the science 

 of sociology and the science of psychology. The last 

 named, however, is usually considered but a department 

 of physiology, and the first but those phenomena ex- 

 hibited on the part of men in society, or, perhaps, I had 

 better say, that science which deals with human society. 



As thus drawn then at the present time, the line of 

 demarcation beiween the biological and the abiological 

 sciences is quite a hard and fast one, lor, as yet, we are 

 ignorant of any link that connects living and not-living 

 matter. 



Botany, in its widest sense, falls within the scope of 

 the biological sciences, as does most assuredly anatomy, 

 although in the case of the latter the student in that de- 

 partment deals mostly with dead matter or the cadaveric 

 remains of animals: such remains, however, once pos- 

 sessed life, which is more than we can say for such an 

 object, for instance, as a crystal or a meteorite. 



Naturally, one may now ask, how about palaeontology? 

 that science which treats of the fossil remains of animals 

 inclosed within the crust of the earth or occurring upon 

 its surface, but in any event so closely linked with the 

 abiological science of geology. 



Well, it is, also, strictly speaking, one of the biological 

 sciences; and, in my estimation, but one of the depart- 

 ments of morphology. Apart from vegetable morphology, 

 animal morphology includes not only palaeontology but 

 that entire group of studies which formerly were classi- 

 fied under anatomy and comparative anatomy; in other 

 words, animal morphology takes into consideration the 

 study of the form and structure of all animals, whether 

 dead, living, fossilized, or whether existing or extinct. 

 Human anatomy is then a subject that falls within the 

 purview of the morphologist. 



All studies biological are more or less dependent upon 

 each other, as the history of all animated nature is ex- 



