ADDRESS. 25 



organs of plants and animals up to the level of the present day. Amidst 

 the host of names of investigators, both at home and abroad, who have con- 

 tributed to its progress, it may seem invidious to particularise individuals. 

 There are, however, a few that I cannot forbear to mention, whose claim 

 to be named on such an occasion as this will be generally conceded. 



Botanists will, I think, acknowledge Wilhelm Hofmeister as a- master 

 in morphology and embryology, Julius von Sachs as the most important 

 investigator in vegetable physiology during the last quarter of the century, 

 and Strasburger as a leader in the study of the phenomena of nuclear 

 division. 



The researches of the veteran Professor of Anatomy in Wiirzburg, 

 Albert von Kolliker, have covered the entire field of animal histology. 

 His first paper, published fifty-nine years ago, was followed by a suc- 

 cession of memoirs and books on human and comparative histology and 

 embryology, and culminated in his great treatise on the structure of the 

 brain, published in 1896. Notwithstanding the weight of more than 

 eighty years, he continues to prosecute histological research, and has 

 published the results of his latest, though let us hope not his last, work 

 during the present year. 



Amongst our own countrymen, and belonging to the generation which 

 has almost passed away, was William Bowman. His investigations 

 between 1840 and 1850 on the mucous membranes, muscular fibre, 

 and the structure of the kidney, together with his researches on the 

 organs of sense, were characterised by an acuteness of observation and of 

 interpreting diflicult and complicated appearances which has made bis 

 memoirs on these subjects landmarks in the history of histological 

 inquiry. 



Of the younger generation of biologists Francis Maitland Balfour, 

 whose early death is deeply deplored as a loss to British science, was 

 one of the most distinguished. His powers of observation and philosophic 

 perception gave him a high place as an original inquirer, and the charm of 

 his personality — for charm is not the exclusive possession of the fairer 

 sex— endeared him to his friends. 



General Morphology. 



Along with the study of the origin and structure of the tissues of 

 organised bodies, much attention has been given during the century to 

 the parts or organs in plants and animals, with the view of determining 

 where and how they take their rise, the order of their formation, the 

 changes which they pass through in the early stages of development, and 

 their relative positions in the organism to which they belong. Investi- 

 gations on these lines are spoken of as morphological, and are to be dis- 

 tinguished from the study of their physiological or functional relations, 

 though both are necessary for the full comprehension of the living 

 organism. 



