XIII 

 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON 1 



NOWHERE has the progress which the world has made during 

 the fifty years of Her Majesty's reign, the completion of 

 which we are now happily celebrating, been more strikingly 

 manifested than in the advance of that so-called " natural 

 knowledge " for the improvement of which our Eoyal Society 

 was instituted more than two centuries ago. Although there 

 have been, without doubt, immense strides in other directions 

 in morals, in art, in historical and literary criticism I 

 venture to say that none of these can be compared with the 

 marvellous progress that has been made in scientific knowledge 

 and scientific methods. 



The tangible results that have followed the practical 

 applications of mechanics, physics, and chemistry have so 

 deeply affected the material interests of mankind, that the 

 progress of these branches of knowledge may seem to put into 

 the shade the wonderful changes that have taken place in the 

 kindred sciences. Nevertheless, I think we may safely say 

 that Zoology, in a certain sense one of the oldest of human 

 studies, has in these latter times undergone a new birth, 

 which has not only changed the standpoint from which we 

 view the special objects of our studies, but has also spread its 

 influence far and wide, and profoundly modified our conceptions 

 on many questions at first sight entirely remote from its 

 sphere. The universal abandonment of the doctrine of fixity 

 of species, which was an article of faith with almost every 

 zoologist in 1837, has introduced new interests, as well, it 



1 Address to the General Meeting of the Society, held in the Zoological 

 Gardens in celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of Her Majesty's reign, 

 16th June 1887. 



