204 

marks, therefore, the department of Anatomy and Physiology 
will remain with me in this room; while that of Zoology and 
Botany, on the one hand, and of Anthropology on the other, will 
adjourn to the apartments which have been provided for them 
respectively. 
Anthropology 
With regard to the position of Anthropology, as including 
Ethnology, and comprehending the whole natural history of man, 
there may be still some differences of opinion, according to the 
point of view from which its phenomena are regarded: as by 
some they may be viewed chiefly in relation to the bodily struc- 
ture and functions of individuals or numbers of men; or as by 
others they may be considered more directly with reference to 
their national character and history, and the affinities of lan- 
guages and customs; or by a third set of inquirers, as bearing 
more immediately upon the origin of man and his relation to 
animals. As the first and third of these sets of topics entirely 
belong to Biology, and as those parts of the second set which do 
not properly fall under that branch may with propriety find a 
place under Geography or Statistics, I feel inclined to adhere to 
the distinct recognition of a department of Anthropology, in its 
present form ; and I think that the suitableness of this arrange- 
ment is apparent, from the nature and number of the appropriate 
reports and communications which have been received under the 
last distribution of the subjects. 
Condition of Biological Research 
The beneficial influence of the British Association in promot- 
ing biological research is shown by the fact that the number of 
the communications to the sections received annually has been 
nearly doubled in the course of the last twenty years, and this 
influence has doubtless been materially assisted by the contri- 
butions in money made by the Association in aid of various bio- 
logical investigations ; for it appears that out of the whole sum 
of nearly 34,500/. contributed by the Association to the promo- 
tion of scientific research, about 2,800/. has been devoted to 
biological purposes, to which it would be fair to add a part at 
least of the grants for Palzontological researches, many of which 
must be acknowledged to stand in close relation to Biology. 
The enormous extent of knowledge and research in the various 
departments of Biology has become a serious impediment to its 
more complete study, and leads to the danger of confined views 
on the part of those whose attention, from necessity or taste, is 
too exclusively directed to the details of one department, or even, 
as often happens, to a subdivision of it. It would seem, indeed, 
as if our predecessors in the Jast generation possessed this 
superior advantage in the then existing narrow boundaries of 
knowledge, that it was possible for them to overtake the contem- 
plation of a wider field, and to follow out researches in a greater 
number of the sciences. To such combinations of varied know- 
ledge, united with their transcendent powers of sound genera- 
lisation and accurate observation, must be ascribed the 
wide-spread and enduring influence of the works of 
such men as Haller, Linneus, and Cuvier, Won Baer, 
and Joannes Miiller. There are doubtless brilliant in- 
stances in our own time of men endowed with similar powers ; 
but the difficulty of bringing these powers into effectual opera- 
tion in a wide range is now so great, that, while the amount of 
research in special biological subjects is enormous, it must be 
reserved for comparatively few to be the authors of great systems, 
or of enduring broad and general views which embrace the whole 
range of biological scicnce. It is incumbent, therefore, on all 
those who are desirous of promoting the advance of biological 
knowledge, to combat the confined views which are apt to be 
engendered by the too great restriction of study to one depart- 
ment. However much subdivision of labour may now be neces- 
sary in the original investigation and elaboration of new facts in 
our science (and the necessity for such subdivision will necessarily 
increase as knowledge extends), there must be secured at first, 
by a wider study of the general principles and some of the details 
of collateral branches of knowledge, that power of justly com- 
paring and correlating facts which will mature the judgment and 
exclude partial views. To refer only to one bright example; I 
may say that it can scarcely be doubted that it is the unequalled 
variety and extent of knowledge, combined with the faculty of 
bringing the most varied facts together in new combinations, 
which has enabled Mr, Darwin (whatever may be thought 
otherwise of his system) to give the greatest impulse which has 
been felt in our own times to the progress of biological yiews 
and thought ; and it is most satisfactory to observe the effect 
which this influence is already producing on the scientific mind of 
NATURE 

[ Aug. 10, 1871 
this country, in opposing the tendency perceptible in recent times. 
to the too restricted study of special departments of natural history. — 
I need scarcely remind you that for the proper investigation and” 
judgment of problems in physiology, a full knowledge of anatomy 
in general, and much of comparative anatomy, of histology and 
embryology, of organic chemistry and of physics. is indispensabl 
as a preliminary to all successful physiological observation an 
experiment. The anatomist, again, who would profess to describ 
rationally and correctly the structure of the human body, mus 
have acquired a knowledge of the principles of morphology de 
rived from the study of comparative anatomy and development, 
and he must have mastered the intricacies of histological research, 
The comparative anatomist must be an accomplished embryolo- 
gist in the whole range of the animal kingdom, or in any single 
division of it which he professes to cultivate. The zoologist and 
the botanist must equally found their descriptions and systematic 
distinctions on morphological, histological, and embryological 
data. And thus the whole of these departments of biological 
science are so interwoven and united that the scientific investi- 
gation of no one can now be regarded as altogether separate from 
that of the others. It has been the work of the last forty years 
to bring that intimate connection of the biological sciences more 
and more fully into prominent view, and to infuse its spirit into 
all scientific investigation. But while in all the departments of 
Biology prodigious advance has been made, there are two more 
especially which merit particular mention, as having almost taken 
their origin within the period I now refer to, as having made the 
most rapid progress in themselves, and as having influenced most 
powerfully and widely the progress of discovery, and the views 
of biologists in other departments —I mean histology and 
embryology. 

Histology 
I need scarcely remind those present that it was only within a 
few years before the foundation of the British ‘Association that 
the suggestions of Lister in regard to the construction of achro- 
matic lenses brought the compound microscope into such a state 
; 
} 
) 
: 
of improvement as caused it to be restored, as I might say, to © 
the place which the more imperfect instrument had lost in the 
previous century. The result of this restoration became apparent 
in the foundation of a new era in the knowledge of the minute 
characters of textural structure, under the joint guidance of 
Robert Brown and Ehrenberg, with contributions from many 
other observers, so as at last to have entitled this branch of 
inquiry to its designation, by Prof. Huxley, of the ‘‘ exhaustive 
investigation of structural elements.” All who hear me are fully 
aware of the influence which, from 1839 onwards, the researches 
of Schwann and Schleiden exerted on the progress of Histology 
and the views of anatomists and physiologists as to the structure 
and development of the textures both of plants and animals, and 
the prodigious increase which followed in varied microscopic 
observations. It is not for me here eyen to allude to the steps 
of that rapid progress by which a new branch of anatomical 
science has been created ; nor can I venture to enter upon any of 
the interesting questions presented by this department of micro- 
scopic anatomy ; nor {attempt to discuss any of those difficult 
problems possessing so much interest at the present moment, 
such as the nature of the organised cell, or the properties of 
protoplasm. I would only remark that it is now very generally 
admitted that the cell wall (as Schwann indeed himself pointed 
out) is not a constant constituent of the cell, nor a source of new 
production, though still capable of considerable structural change 
after the time of its first formation. The nucleus has also lost some 
of the importance attached to it by Schwann and his earlier fol- 
lowers, as an essential constituent of the cell, while the proto- 
plasm of the cell remains in undisputed possession of the field as 
the more immediate seat of the phenomena of growth and 
organisation, and of the contractile property which forms so 
remarkable a feature of their substance. I cordially agree with 
much of what Prof. Huxley has written on this subject in 1853 
and 1869. The term ‘‘ physical jbasis of life” may perhaps be in 
some respect objectionable, but I look upon the recognition of 
protoplasm which he has enforced, as a most important step in 
the recent progress of histology ; adopting this general term to 
indicate that part of the tissue of plants and animals which is the 
constant seat of the growing and moving phenomena; but not 
implying identity of nature and properties in all the variety of 
circumstance in which this substance may occur. To Haeckel 
the fuller history of protoplasm in its lowest forms is due. To 
Dr. Beale we owe the minutest investigation of the properties by 
the use of magnifying powers beyond any that had previously | 
