342 MEMORIAL OF JOSEPH HENRY. 



physiology and embryology, served however in some measure to 

 prepare his mind to apprehend the significance of the indications 

 which had been so industriously collected, and 'so intelligently 

 collated: and from the very first, he accepted the problem as a 

 purely philosophical one; employing that much abused term in no 

 restricted sense. With no more reserve in the expression of his 

 views, than the avoidance of unprofitable controversies, (though no 

 one more than he enjoyed the calm and purely intellectual dis- 

 cussion of an unsettled question by its real experts,) he yet found 

 no occasion to write upon the subject. The unpublished opinions 

 however, of one so wise and eminent, cannot be a matter of indiffer- 

 ence to the student of nature ; and their exposition cannot but assist 

 to enlighten our estimate of the mental stature of the man, and of 

 his breadth of apprehension and toleration. 



Whatever may be the ultimate fate of the theory of natural 

 selection, (he remarked in the freedom of oral intercourse with 

 several naturalists,) it at least marks an epoch, the first elevation 

 of natural history (so-called) to the really scientific stage: it is 

 based on induction, and correlates a large range of apparently dis- 

 connected observations, gathered from the regions of palaeontology 

 or geological successions of organisms, their geographical distribu- 

 tion, climatic adaptations and remarkable re-adjustments, their 

 comparative anatomy, and even the occurrence of abnormal varia- 

 tions, and of rudimentary structures seemingly so uselessly dis- 

 played as mere simulations of a " type." It forms a good " working 

 hypothesis" for directing the investigations of the botanist and 

 zoologist.* Natural selection indeed no less than artificial, (he 

 was accustomed to say,) is to a limited extent a fact of observation; 

 and the practical question is to determine approximately its reach 

 of application, and its sufficiency as an actual agency, to embrace 

 larger series of organic changes lying beyond the scope of direct 

 human experience. It is for the rising generation of conscientious 

 zoologists and botanists to attack this problem, and to ascertain if 

 practicable its limitations or modifications. 



*"In the investigation of nature, we provisionally adopt hypotheses as ante- 

 cedent probabilities, which we seek to prove or disprove by subsequent observa- 

 tion and experiment: and it is in this way that science is most rapidly and 

 securely advanced." (Agricult. Report, 1856, p. 456.) 



