456 BIOLOGY AND ITS MAKERS 



application of results to the benefit of mankind, and in the 

 investigation of the fossil records. 



The atmosphere of thought engendered by the progress of 

 biology is beneficial in every way. While its progress has 

 dealt the death-blow to many superstitions and changed 

 materially views regarding the universe, it is gratifying to 

 think that it has not been iconoclastic in its influence, but 

 that it has substituted something better for that which was 

 taken away. It has given a broader and more wholesome 

 basis for religion and theories of ethics; it has taught greater 

 respect for truth and morality. However beneficial this 

 progress has been in the past, who can doubt that the mission 

 of biology to the twentieth century will be more important 

 than to the past, and that there will be embraced in ' its 

 progress greater benefits than any we have yet known ? 



