MAN'S ACCOUNT WITH THE LOWER ANIMALS 



As organiser of this course of lectures on behalf of King's 

 College and of the Imperial Studies Committee of the Univer- 

 sity of London, it falls to my lot to deliver an introductory 

 discourse. In fulfilling this duty I conceive it to be my first 

 privilege to express our heartfelt appreciation of the generous 

 response which has been accorded to our invitations by 

 distinguished zoologists belonging to other seats of learning 

 a response far more ready and far more generous than we had 

 any right to expect at a time when every one of us is pre- 

 occupied with thoughts and anxieties very incompatible with 

 the successful handling of intellectual problems. 



You will have gathered already from the programme which 

 has been issued that our joint purpose is to emphasise and 

 illustrate the importance of zoological science from the point 

 of view of human progress. We no longer need to be in- 

 structed, especially in these strenuous times, as to the immense 

 influence, for good or evil, which the chemist and the physicist 

 exercise upon the destinies of mankind, whether their energies 

 be employed in the constructive processes of peace or in the 

 destructive ravages of war. The zoologist can perhaps claim 

 little if any direct share in the conduct of the terrific struggle 

 for existence which is now going on throughout the civilised 

 world, but he can and does, I venture to think, play a great 

 part, not only in the amelioration of the conditions of human 

 life, whether in war or peace, but also in the education of the 

 public with regard to many matters which have a very direct 

 bearing upon the future of the human race. 



