90 THE BIOLOGY OF DAILY LIFE. 



vention, whether we call a given organism an animal 

 or a plant" (Huxley), they must come under a category 

 which includes all plants and animals. Perhaps some 

 may be plants and some animals, and a field in which 

 these organisms are artifically collected, fed, and 

 cultivated may, in an enlarged sense, be aptly com- 

 pared either to Kew Gardens or the Zoo. 



Who but a madman would go if he could escape the 

 keepers, and dabble these organisms with tar dyes, 

 and mark their behaviour under them, as if that 

 afforded a ground for scientific identification and 

 classification ? 



Does the folly diminish in direct or in inverse 

 relation to the size of the organism, or does it not 

 rather remain constant, and is it not utterly absurd 

 to attempt to classify organisms biologically (not 

 chemically, mark you, but biologically i.e., as living 

 creatures), by their behaviour under chemical re- 

 agents ? 



By chemical processes, whether employed on 

 organic or inorganic materials, we get chemical results 

 (and valuable and precious they may be in their own 

 line) ; but biological results must be obtained by 

 biological means ; by means of natural selections and 

 affinities, and cultivations and breedings good breed- 

 ings (in every sense), not forcing but obeying the 

 rules of life ; not outraging but wooing the modesty of 

 Nature. 



Then again look at the method of naming which 

 these experimenters adopt. We can more or less 

 accurately gauge the condition of any science by its 

 nomenclature. 



Their method has a curious resemblance to Hamlet's 



