672 KEPORT— 1903, 



Section D. -ZOOLOGY. 



PuESiDESTT OF THE SECTION — Professor Svdnev J. Hickson, M.A., 



D.Sc, F.R.S. 



The President delivered the following Address on Friday, September 11 : — 



At the last meeting of the British Association which was held in Southport, the 

 President of Section D, Professor E. Ray Lankester, delivered an impressive 

 address on the provision iu this country for the advancement of Biological 

 Science, in which he pointed out the very inadequate encouragement which existed 

 at that time for thosu who, by education and inclination, were fitted to pursue 

 original investigation in Zoology and Botany. Twenty years have passed since 

 that Address was written, and yet we have to acknowledge that, notwithstanding 

 the important part which our branch of Science has played in contributing to the 

 sum of useful human knowledge during the last two decades, the progress made 

 in the direction indicated by Professor Lankester is far from satisfactory. I do 

 not propose in this Address to make any detailed statement of the number of posts 

 in this country that are now open to zoologists, or of the amount of the present- 

 day endowments for the encouragement of Zoological Science as compared with 

 those of twenty years ago ; but I wish to point out that neither in the older 

 Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, nor in the Colleges and National Institutions 

 situated in London, nor in the newer Universities and Colleges of the provinces, 

 have any new posts been created or adequately endowed which enable the holder 

 to devote a reasonable amount of his time to the pursuit of biological knowledge. 

 It is true that there are a few more posts now than there were, in which a small 

 stipend or salary is offered to young trained zoologists for their services as teachers 

 of Elementary IBiological Science to medical students and others; but the emolu- 

 ments of such posts are so small, depending, as they do, almost entirely upon a 

 share of the fees paid by the students, and the duties so arduous and prolonged, 

 that they really offer very little inducement to the pursuit of continuous and 

 systematic original research. 



In one respect, however, we may notice and acknowledge, with gratitude, an 

 improvement in our position. In the laboratory accommodation, both in our 

 Universities and on the sea coast, we are a good deal better off than we were. 

 Twenty years ago there was no biological laboratory on the whole of the long line 

 of the British coast. Now, thanks to the efforts made by biologists and their 

 friends, we have at Plymouth an institution for the study of the marine fauna and 

 flora under favourable conditions, and similar institutions at Port Erin in the Isle 

 of Man, at Piel, at Millport, and at St. Andrews, and a provisional laboratory for 

 the study of fishery problems at Grimsby. New laboratories for the study of 

 zoology have also been built at Oxford, at Cambridge, at the University of Man- 

 chester, at Edinburgh University, and elsewhere, and I may add that a fine new 

 laboratorj^ is now in course of construction for the department of Zoology in the 

 University of Liverpool. 



These new institutions, however, only emplm^'ise, tl.ey certainly do not amelio- 



