618 EEPORT— 1902. 



Section D.— ZOOLOGY. 

 President of the Section — Professor G. B. Howes, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S. 



THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11. 

 The President delivered the following Address : — 



The Morphological Method and Progress 



It is now twenty-eight years since this Association last assembled in Belfast, and 

 to those present who can recall the meeting the proceedings of Section D will he 

 best remembered for the delivery of an address by Huxley * On the Hypothesis 

 that Animals are Automata, and its History,' one of the finest philosophic pro- 

 ducts of his mind.^ At that date the zoological world were about to embark on a 

 period of marked activity. Fired by the influence of the ' Origin of Species,' which 

 had survived abuse and was taking immediate effect, the zoological mind, accepting 

 the doctrine of evolution, had become eager to determine the lines of descent of 

 animal forms. Marine observatories were in their infancy ; the * Challenger ' was 

 8tni at sea ; the study of comparative embryology was but then becoming a 

 science ; and when, reflecting on this, we briefly survey the present field, we can 

 but stand astonished at the enormity of the task which has been achieved. 



Development has proceeded on every hand. The leavening influence, spreading 

 with sure effect, has in due course extended to the Antipodes and the East, in 

 each of which portions of the globe there have now arisen a band of earnest 

 workers pledged to the investigation of their indigenous fauna, with which they 

 are proceeding with might and main. Of the Japanese, let it be said that not only 

 have they filled in gaps in our growing knowledge, for which they alone have the 

 materials at hand, but that, with an acumen deserving the highest praise, they 

 have put us right on first principles. I refer to the fact that they have shown, 

 with respect to the embryonic membranes of the common chick, that we in the 

 West, with our historic associations, our methods, and our skill, contenting our- 

 selves with an ever-recurring restriction to the germinal area, have, by an error 

 of orientation, missed an all-important septum, displaced under an inequality of 

 growth." 



Those of us who have lived and worked throughout this memorable period 

 have had a unique experience, for never has there been progress so rapid, accumu- 

 lation of observations so extensive and exact. Of the 386,000 living animal 

 species, to compute the estimate low,' every one available has been lain underhand, 

 with the result that our annual literary output now amounts to close upon 

 10,000 contributions, the description of new genera and sub-genera, say 1,700. 

 More than one half of this vast series refer to the Insecta alone ; but notwith- 

 standing this, the records of facts of structure and development, with which 

 most of us are concerned, now amount to a formidable mass, calculated to awe the 

 unlettered looker-on, to overwhelm the earnest devotee, unless by specialising he 

 can secure relief. As an example of what may occur, it may be remarked that a 

 recent exploration of the great African lakes has resulted in the discovery of over 

 130 new species.* 



' For List of References see p. 636. 



