RELATIONS OF ANIMAL MORPHOLOGY 257 



jects, in following some favorable lead into the unknown. The 

 embryologist who is interested in processes, the cytologist who is 

 interested in the fertilization of the egg, will feel free to work on any 

 material, whether plants or animals or crystals or colloidal mixtures 

 and by any methods that seem likely to be of aid to him. And I 

 hope to live to see the day when our now overgrown zoological and 

 botanical societies shall languish while groups of men devoted to a 

 common subject and investigating it with the most diverse material 

 will meet together to discuss results of common interest. When a 

 subject no longer demands vigorous investigation, and the centre of 

 activity is shifted elsewhere, I should like to see the old associations 

 abandoned and new ones formed to advance the newly risen problems. 

 Our large societies are a hindrance, I sometimes think, rather than 

 a means of advancement to science. We want smaller meetings with 

 more acute interest. And, finally, I cannot but remark on the vast- 

 ness of the preliminary training which the present ramifications of 

 every science make necessary. Research in the fields between the 

 old sciences has rewards for the investigator, but he who would reap 

 those rewards must prepare himself through years devoted to gaining 

 the mastery of many sciences. 



