ON BIOLOGY. 85 



metaphysics, but the science has centuries of work be- 

 fore it in the fields I have just indicated. An enormous 

 amount of evidence of all kinds, and often of the most 

 peculiar kinds, has been submitted to the society for its 

 consideration, and the great mass of this has been 

 critically dealt with after the most careful scientific 

 methods. Mr. Frederic W. H. Myers, one of the two 

 honorary secretaries of the society, has recently said, in 

 referring to the work accomplished by its efforts: 



"There has been what we regard as adequate evidence 

 of telepathy a power of direct communication from 

 mind to mind which is difficult to reconcile with the 

 ordinary materialistic synthesis. There has been evi- 

 dence also less in quantity, but to me convincing of 

 clairvoyance, of the supernormal acquisition of knowl- 

 edge as to present, past, and perhaps even future things. 

 And there has been evidence which points prima facie to 

 the agency of departed personalities, although this evi- 

 dence has also been interpreted in other ways.'' 



These convictions of Mr. Myers are not held by all 

 the members, though for one other I can say the evi- 

 dence that has been submitted and examined has quite 

 satisfied me of the truth of telepathy. Further than 

 that, 1 have nothing to say at present, though I would 

 add it must be fully evident to anyone that the results 

 aimed at, were they attained and proven, are of greater 

 importance to all mankind than the sum total of all else 

 that can ever be accomplished by every other science 

 known to us united. 



Finally, the society has added very materially to our 

 knowledge of hj'pnotism, hallucinations, dreams, pre- 

 monitions, and a number of other allied subjects, and 

 progress in several of these directions is very satisfactory 

 and material. 



From the consideration of such supreme matters as 1 are 

 offered us by the science of physchology, we pass again 

 to take to note of the growth and advancement of another 

 department of biology which has a world-wide interest 

 for all lovers of Nature, and all that is lovable in Nature. 

 I refer to that science which to both the popular mind 

 and to the naturalist has for ages been known as zoology 

 the natural history of animals, pure and simple. Taken 

 as a whole the world over, progress in these fields of re- 

 cent years has been, it seems to me, rather in the direc- 

 tion of amassing material for museums and private 

 collections than of making carefully recorded and ex- 

 haustive accounts of the life-histories of animals. As 



