94 EEPOET — 1873. 



made by a bipedal reptile, like Compsof/natlms, or by a reptilian-like bird, sucK 

 as Archaopteryx, having a long rat-like tail. 



Mr. Woodward thinks the bipedal tracks on the Connecticut sandstones are to. 

 be satisfactorily explained by the conclusion which we are now justified in forming, 

 that they were left by Avian-like Reptiles, although we have not as yet discovered 

 their fossil remains. 



BIOLOGY. 



Address hy Geoege J. Allman, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S., F.R.S.E., M.B.LA., 

 F.L.S., President of the Section. 



For some years it has been the practice at the Meetings of this Association for the 

 special Presidents to open the work of their respective Sections with an Address, 

 which is supposed to differ, in the greater generality of its subject, from the ordi- 

 nary communications to the Sections. Finding that dui'ing the present Meeting 

 this duty would devolve on myself, I thought over the available topics, and con- 

 cluded that a few words on the Present Aspect of Biology and the Method of 

 Biological Study would best satisfy the conditions imposed. 



I shall endeavour to be as little technical as my subject will allow ; and thouo'h 

 I know that there are here present many to whom I cannot expect to convey any 

 truths with which they are not already familiar, yet in an Address of this kind 

 the speaker has no right to take for granted any large amount of scieutific know- 

 ledge in his audience. Indeed one of the cliief advantages which result from 

 these Meetings of the British Association consists in the stimulus they give 

 to inquiry, in the opportunity they afl'ord to many of becoming acquainted for 

 the first time with the established truths of science, and the initiation among 

 them of new lines of thought. 



And this is undoubtedly no small gain ; for how many are there who, though 

 they may have reaped all the advantages which our established educational systems 

 can bestow, are yet sadly deficient in a knowledge of the world of life which 

 surrounds them. It is a fair and wonderful world, this eai-th on which we have 

 our dwelling-place ; and vet how many wander over it unheedingly ! by how many 

 have its lessons of wisdom never been read 1 how many have never spared a 

 thought on the beauty of its forms, the harmony of its relations, the deep meaning 

 of its laws I 



And with all this there is assuredly implanted in man an undying love of such 

 knowledge. From his imshaken faith in causation he yearns to deduce the 

 unknown from the known, to look beyond what is at hand and obvious to what is 

 remote and imseen. 



Coiicejition of Bioloyy and Function of the Scienti/ic Method. 



Under the head of Biology are included all those departments of scientific 

 research which have as their object the investigation of the living beings, the 

 plants and the animals, which tenant the surface of our earth, or have tenanted it 

 in past time. 



It admits of being studied under two grand heads — Morphology, which treats of 

 Fomi, and Phj'siology, which treats of Function ; and oesides these there are 

 certain departments of biological study to which both Morphology and Phy.siology 

 contribute, such as Classification, Disti'ibution, and that dep.irtment of research 

 which is concerned with the origin and causes of living and extinct forms. 



By the aid of observation and experiment we obtain the elements which are to 

 be combined and developed into a science of living beings ; and it is the function of 

 the scientific method to indicate the mode in which the combinations are to be 

 eflected, and the path which the development must pursue. Without it the 

 results gained would be but a confused assemblage of isolated facts and die- 



