THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 2^ 



Of course, as a matter of fact, all the members of our Associa- 

 tion know exactly what is covered Dy the title " Biological Section ; " 

 they know the derivatioti of the word, and the position Biological 

 studies occupy among the other physical sciences. Therefore in 

 what follows I am not inferring that it is necessary to throw more 

 light on these, but rather, that we may look historically at the 

 various steps leading to the use of the word Biology, and how it 

 actually grew out of the term Natural History which my friend 

 wished substituted for Biological. 



What is Biology then ? The word itself came into use about 

 ninety years ago. That is, it was first mentioned about nmety years 

 ago, and may be said to be the expression of the growth of science 

 during the last two centuries and a half. 



At the dawn of learning, after what we call the dark ages, all 

 knowledge was divided into two kinds. These were, the knowledge 

 of nature, and the knowledge of man ; for it seems to have been the 

 current idea then, that there was a sort of antagonism between man 

 and nature, in fact, that the one had not very much to do with the 

 other, except that the one was pretty often rather troublesome to 

 the other. 



And though we find on reading the writings of some of the 

 great thinkers of the seventeenth century, that they recognized but 

 one scientific method, applicable both to man and to nature, we 

 also find that some of them had a notion of the existence of a broad 

 distinction between nature and man. 



One of the writers of that period was Thomas Hobbes, whose 

 wonderful book " Leviathan " was published in 1651. I cannot do 

 better than quote his own terse statement in relation to the division 

 of human knowledge at this period. He says, "The register of the 

 knowledge of facts is called history, whereof there be two sorts, one 

 called Natural History, which is the history of such facts, or effects 

 of nature, as have no dependence on man's will ; such as are the 

 histories of metals, plants, animals, regions and the like. The other 

 is Civil History, which is the history of the voluntary actions of man 

 in the commonwealth." 



So that we see, all history of fact was divided into these two 

 groups of natural and civil history. 



It will be seen from this that if our Association had existed in 

 the time of Hobbes we should have needed only two Sections to in- 



