I 4 CHAPTERS ON EVOLUTION. 



II. 



THE STUDY OF BIOLOGY. 



IT may reasonably be supposed that every intelligent person is 

 perfectly conversant with the term "Natural History," and with 

 the common meaning usually attached thereto. As employed in 

 ordinary life, or even in scientific circles, where exactness of language 

 is a necessity for the clear expression of thought, the term has come 

 to signify the study of the animal world. Hence, popularly, a 

 " natural historian " is believed to be a person who is much at home 

 in zoological gardens, in aquaria, and in all places where animal life is 

 presented to view, for purposes of study, serious or otherwise. To 

 correct popular and long-standing ideas, is a task for which no 

 sensible person can have any great liking. Albeit that the task is 

 often necessary, and in matters more serious than the nomenclature 

 of science has to be undertaken as a matter of conscience, the work 

 of reforming old-established notions of things is frequently the 

 labour, not of one lifetime, but of many generations. Still, effort is, 

 and must be, cumulative in its effects ; and if in the present instance 

 I can succeed in showing the rational use of the name " Natural 

 History," I may perchance not merely preface this chapter by a 

 necessary and appropriate explanation, but likewise aid in diffusing 

 better, because truer, ideas of the aim and scope of natural science. 



The term " Natural History " finds different meanings according 

 to the latitude in which it is used, and according to the prevailing 

 ideas which the name has been accustomed to convey to the minds 

 of those using the name. In the north, for instance, in academic 

 circles, the name is used to signify "zoology," or the study of 

 animals alone. A student who, in a northern university, attends a 

 class of " Natural History," is understood to concern himself solely 

 with the animal population of the globe. Elsewhere the name has 

 been used to indicate the study of plants and animals together ; the 

 student of " Natural History " in this latter sense, extending his 

 researches into the field of " Botany," in addition to that of 

 " Zoology." But a third meaning of the name comes to hand in 

 which it is used, in strict accordance with its etymological signi- 

 ficance, to signify, not the study of any one or two departments of 

 nature, but to denote the whole range of natural science studies. 

 Employed in this latter sense, the name " Natural History " is found 

 to include not merely the knowledge of animals and plants, but the 



