Skptembee 7, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



359 



IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OF OBSERVATION. 



Whilst certain principles of research are 

 common to all the sciences, each great di- 

 vision requires for its investigation spe- 

 cialized arrangements to insure its progress. 

 Nothing contributes so much to the ad- 

 vancement of knowledge as improvements 

 in the means of observation, either by the 

 discovery of new adjuncts to research, or 

 by a fresh adaptation of old methods. In 

 the industrial arts, the introduction of a new 

 kind of raw material, the recognition that 

 a mixture or blending is often more service- 

 able than when the substances employed 

 a,re uncombined, the discovery of new proc- 

 esses of treating the articles used in man- 

 ufactures, the invention of improved ma- 

 chinery, all lead to the expansion of trade, 

 to the occupation of the people, and to the 

 development of great industrial centers. In 

 science, also, the invention and employ- 

 ment of new and more precise instruments 

 and appliances enable us to appreciate more 

 clearly the signification of facts and phe- 

 nomena which were previously obscure, and 

 to penetrate more deeply into the mysteries 

 of nature. They mark fresh departures in 

 the history of science, and provide a firm 

 base of support from which a continuous 

 advance may be made and fresh conceptions 

 of nature can be evolved. 



It is not my intention, even had I pos- 

 sessed the requisite knowledge, to undertake 

 so arduous a task as to review the progress 

 which has recently been made in the great 

 body of sciences which lie within the do- 

 main of the British Association. As my 

 occupation in life has required me to give 

 attention to the science which deals with 

 the structure and organization of the bodies 

 of man and animals — a science which either 

 includes within its scope or has intimate 

 and widespread relations to comparative 

 anatomy, embryology, morphology, zoology, 

 physiology, and anthropology — I shall limit 

 myself to the attempt to bring before you 



some of the more important observations 

 and conclusions which have a bearing on 

 the present position of the subject. As this 

 is the closing year of the century it will 

 not, I think, be out of place to refer to 

 the changes which a hundred years have 

 brought about in our fundamental concep- 

 tions of the structure of animals. In sci- 

 ence, as in business, it is well from time to 

 time to take stock of what we have been 

 doing, so that we may realize where we 

 stand and ascertain the balance to our 

 credit in the scientific ledger. 



So far back as the time of the ancient 

 Greeks it was known that the human body 

 and those of the more highly organized an-^ 

 imals were not homogeneous, but were built 

 up of parts, the partes dissimilares (rd 

 avo/wia fj.lprj') of Aristotle, which differed 

 from each other in form, color, texture, 

 consistency and properties. These parts 

 were familiarly known as the bones, mus- 

 cles, sinews, blood-vessels, glands, brain, 

 nerves, and so on. As the centuries rolled 

 on, and as observers and observations mul- 

 tiplied, a more and more precise knowledge 

 of these parts throughout the animal king- 

 dom was obtained, and various attempts 

 were made to classify animals in accord- 

 ance with their forms and structure. Dur- 

 ing the concluding years of the last century 

 and the earlier part of the present, the 

 Hunters, "William and John, in our coun- 

 try, the Meckels in Germany, Cuvier and 

 St. Hilaire in France, gave an enormous 

 impetus to anatomical studies, and con- 

 tributed largely to our knowledge of the 

 construction of the bodies of animals. But 

 whilst by these and other observers the 

 most salient and, if I may use the expres- 

 sion, the grosser characters of animal or- 

 ganization had been recognized, little was 

 known of the more Intimate structure or 

 texture of the parts. So far as could be de- 

 termined by the unassisted vision, and so 

 much as could be recognized by the use of 



