D.— ZOOLOGY. 91 



My predecessor in this chair told you that ' The present position of 

 Zoology is unsatisfactory,' and he found the chief hope for the future in the 

 application of the experimental method. He may be right. I am not 

 so sure. The experimental method has answered many questions and it 

 will answer many more, but there are some questions, and these well worth 

 the asking, to which experiment will never find an answer. No one will 

 maintain that taxonomy by itself will answer them, but it will often suggest 

 where the answer is to be sought for, and it will provide a standpoint from 

 which both questions and answers will be seen in a true perspective. 



Finally, I would recall a remark once made in my hearing by a wise old 

 naturalist, the late Dr. David Sharp. Someone had been remarking on the 

 decline of systematic zoology and predicting the extinction of systematic 

 zoologists. Dr. Sharp replied, in effect, ' I have seen many passing 

 fashions in zoology, many departments of research becoming popular and 

 then falling into neglect ; the one branch that will never fail to attract is 

 the systematic one. The aesthetic satisfaction to be derived from contem- 

 plating the mere variety of animal forms, and from tracing the order that 

 runs through all its diversity, appeals to a very deep instinct in human 

 nature. There will always be systematic zoologists.' 



