48 PROGRESS OF SCIENCE IN THE CENTURY. 



in the early morning of a growing day. The most 

 unexpected and marvellous progress has been made 

 since that date, but as yet there is no occasion for, 

 and no prospect of modifying the title (Association 

 for the Advancement of Science). We are still la- 

 bouring for the advancement of science, for the dis- 

 covery of new truth. The field, which is the world, 

 was never so white unto the harvest as now, but it 

 is still early morning on the dial of science.^' It is 

 this last sentence which should be pondered over by 

 any one who is inclined to speak or think or act as 

 if it were already late afternoon ! 



The fact is, that to whatever department of scien- 

 tific enquiry we turn, we find an embarrassment of 

 unsolved problems. Everywhere there is a widening 

 outlook, a more and more intensive analysis, but never 

 a hint of finality. Everywhere we hear the words, 

 " for leagues and leagues beyond, and still more sea." 

 It might seem to some that an old-established and 

 persistently prosecuted department of science like 

 human anatomy must be now almost exhausted, but 

 among the experts the suggestion would be received 

 w^ith derision. It might seem to some that a little 

 animal like the lancelet, every millimetre of whose 

 body has been subjected to the scrutiny of the keen- 

 est zoological observers, must be now almost com- 

 pletely known, but the suggestion is one that only 

 an outsider could make. We have not nearly fin- 

 ished with this one animal, and is it not a little 

 one? The animal cell has been studied with the 

 most assiduous carefulness, with gradually perfected 

 microscopes, with ingenious devices of fixing and 

 staining and cutting, for more than three-quarters 

 of a century, and yet it remains very imperfectly 

 known. We may recall, for instance, that the dis- 



