BIOLOGY 



constitute a perfectly truthful record of observed 

 facts. 



For convenience of treatment in our imaginary 

 Institute of Biological Science, I should be inclined 

 to subdivide this portion of the subject into 

 (i) Physiology, (2) Experimental Morphology and 

 Embryology, (3) Genetics, and (4) Biometrics. 



Physiology, the study of function as con- 

 trasted with that of structure, has long been re- 

 cognised as of primary importance in our university 

 curricula. Although usually regarded as a distinct 

 science, it clearly overlaps almost every other 

 department of Biology. Thus it cannot by any 

 possibility be divorced from Anatomy, and it plays 

 a fundamentally important part in the theory of 

 Heredity. It is perhaps unfortunate that our 

 interest in ourselves as human beings has resulted 

 in the concentration of attention upon the func- 

 tions of the human body, almost to the exclusion 

 of the lower animals, so that the development of 

 this branch of Biology has been a very lop-sided 

 growth. This will no doubt be corrected in the 

 future, with much benefit to all concerned. 

 Already the botanists have set the example and 

 made great progress in their study of the physi- 

 ology of plants. 



Physiology, then, is an enormous subject, 

 and still requires subdivision before it can be 



