726 REPORT— 1887. 



Section D.— BIOLOGY. 



President of the Section.— ALFKED NEWTON, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., V.P.Z.S., 

 ETC., Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy in the University of 

 Cambridge. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1. 



The President delivered the followinn- Address : — 



In opening the business of this Section I cannot but call to raind the last occasion 

 when the Britisli Association met in the city of Manchester, just six-and-twenty 

 years ago ; and, while my memory brings back to me many pleasing recollections 

 of that gatliering, I cannot help dwelling upon the extraordinray difference between 

 the state of things that then existed and that which we have before us to-day. 

 Tlie moral of the contrast I shall not seek to enforce. Those, if any there still be, 

 who despair of the future of our Association may reflect upon it at their leisure ; while 

 those who believe, as I do, that our Association has no justifiable cause for think- 

 ing that its work is accomplished, that it had better settle its worldly affairs, and 

 compose its robes around it in a becoming fashion, before lying down to die, will at 

 once appreciate the difference. 



Yet there is one difference between our proceedings to-day and those of more than 

 a quarter of a century since which I, personally, do not appreciate. In that remote 

 and golden age it had not become obligatory on the President of this Section to 

 prepare beforehand an Address to be delivered to a critical, even though kindly, 

 audience. A few words of friendly greeting to old faces, and a hearty welcome to 

 those that were new, with a general statement of the objects of our coming 

 together, comprised all that was expected from the occupant of the chair. Such 

 was the case when my predecessor, who was, I may ob.«erve, my excellent friend 

 and colleague, Professor Babington, opened the proceedings of this Section — then 

 called the Section of Zoology and Botany — at Manchester in 1861 ; and I am 

 sure I have reason to envy his happy lot, for, on refreshing my memory by 

 turning to the' lieport of that meeting, I find that his introductory ' Remarks ' 

 occupy a space of less than eight lines of print. In this respect, but in this only, 

 I must confess myself laudator teviporis acti, and it having now been for so many 

 years the practice of your President to deliver an Address on occasions like the 

 present, I feel that I should be filling my position under false pretences did I not 

 conform to established usage, though I am well aware that what I have to say wUl, 

 for many reasons, hardly bear comparison with what has been said by many of my 

 distinguished predecessors. 



But to continue the contrast of what took place in this Section at our last 

 meeting in Manchester with what may be expected to happen now, I would remark 

 that the year 1861 was one which, when the history of biology comes to be written, 

 will be found to deserve particular recognition. This is not merely because of the 

 all-important discovery of Archrcopteryx, for that had not been made known when 

 the Association met, and did not affect our proceedings here. AVhen Ave met, it 

 was a time, so to speak, of ' slack water ' ; but slack water is commonly the effect 

 of two contrary streams, and perhaps I ought to state how this came about. 

 All present should be aware that it was before the Linnean Society on the 



