IV. 

 Its Growth and Future Influence. 



It would hardly seem at all within the range of prob- 

 ability that at any time in the future there will ever be 

 added another to the main divisions of biology, as I have 

 already given them to you; or, in other words, the scope 

 of human knowledge of this kind is now so wide in so far 

 as the consideration of living matter on the globe is con- 

 cerned that the division of the science into morphology, 

 distribution, physiology, and aetiology will stand for all 

 time as capable of receiving, as a natural classificatory 

 scheme, anything that her students of the future will re- 

 veal, or are likely to bring to light. No doubt, as the 

 science becomes more specialized, more or fewer sub- 

 divisions will of necessity be differentiated and recog- 

 nized within the departments in chief, and it will be 

 along these subdivisional lines that the growth of biology 

 will take place, and its extension be appreciated. Even 

 at this very hour, the scalpel and the microscope are 

 ever busy in the hands of science, investigating the 

 structure of every kind of existing animal and all 

 varieties of plants in many parts of the world. These re 

 searches will go steadily on and that, too, in greater and 

 greater number, in an ever widening field, and with an 

 ever increasing interest and ardor. 



As we are all aware, morphology constitutes one of the 

 most important divisions of biology, and it is plain that 

 there can be but one limit to its work, and that is when 

 we are in possession of a full and correct account of the 

 struture of every species of animal or organism now ex- 

 isting in the world's fauna, as well as an equally full 

 knowledge of the structure of the entire vegetable world 

 from the very lowest forms of plant life to the most high 

 and complex ones. Not only that, but such a far-reach- 

 ing knowledge should be made comparative in every 

 sense of the word, and include a complete cjmprehension 

 of every kind of structural anomaly. Moreover, those 



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