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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 86. 



our own eyes what is described in the sub- 

 lime words of the Psalmist : " I am fear- 

 fully and wonderfully made * * *. My sub- 

 stance was not hid from thee when I was 

 made in secret and curiously wrought in the 

 lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did 

 see my substance, yet being unperfect ; and 

 in thy book all my members are written, 

 which in continuance were fashioned when 

 as yet there was none of them." 



Classification requires knowledge of all 

 the above, for it is an arrangement in due 

 order of the complex beings of the earth 

 from the microscopic animalcule to the 

 mighty elephant. For the classification to 

 be successful the mind must see the true re- 

 lations between all the forms, must know 

 their structure and activities and how they 

 were curiously wrought and transformed 

 from generation to generation for unnum- 

 bered ages ; in a word, the classifier must 

 know their evolution ; or, in the noble words 

 of Agassiz, he must ' become the translator 

 of the thoughts of God.' 



And lastly we come to the economics of 

 zoology, that is, the relations of the animals 

 to the earth, the plants, to one another and 

 to man, and his relations to them. Here 

 one is brought face to face, not merely with 

 the glory of living, thinking and acting, but 

 with destiny ; with the solemn fact of life 

 with death, or, more truly stated, life hy 

 death. More are born than can possibly 

 survive even the short span granted for the 

 typical life cycle . Indeed, it almost appears 

 as if nature in her efforts for life had be- 

 come a Moloch of death. How graphically 

 Darwin has painted the picture of this scene 

 of strife, the plant crowding its neighbors 

 to get a little more sunshine or nutriment, 

 the animals crowding each other and de- 

 vouring both the plants and their fellows ; 

 and then there is the whole foul brood of ani- 

 mal parasites. In these latter days we know 

 also that the plants are not simply content 

 to strive for sunshine and soil in order to 



elaborate from the inorganic world the 

 compounds that alone make animal life 

 possible, but in turn, a multitude of them, 

 which no man can number, the bacteria, 

 are devouring the animals, including man. 

 The knowledge of this fact, so largely due 

 to the great Pasteur, has given new signifi- 

 cance to hygiene and a new meaning to 

 cleanliness. 



This death and disease of the animals by 

 means of the pathogenic germs, which also 

 bring disease and death to man, has put a 

 new aspect upon man's relations with the 

 animals. They are indeed his kin, and 

 zoological economics may almost be said to 

 have become dignified into zoological ethics. 

 None stands or falls alone. The earth is 

 the mother of us all, but she bestows her 

 gifts in a very roundabout fashion some- 

 times. The soil, air and sunshine of Mon- 

 tana may furnish the conditions for the 

 grass ; the old world gave the foundations 

 of the life which we now find realized in 

 perfect form in the sturdy beeves which 

 grow and fatten on the Montana grass ; and 

 finally, without a thought of the sun, or the 

 soil of Montana, or of the life which they 

 made possible, or of the fear and suffering 

 which may have resulted, we calmly nourish 

 ourselves on the beefsteak while discussing 

 politics, education or the hereafter. But 

 often enough to take away undue indiffer- 

 ence, the beef or other food may contain 

 the germs of what is death to us, although 

 it may be teeming life to the germs ; and 

 there is forced upon us a consideration oi 

 our relations with our living environment. 

 If knowledge and reflection are sufficient, 

 it does not take a very great philosopher to 

 see that the economical standpoint changes 

 with the change of organism. For the 

 plant, the sunshine, the soil and the rain 

 are for it. For the plant-eating animal, 

 sunshine, soil and rain are to produce the 

 plant for it. And from man's standpoint, 

 all are for him ; but if we change the stand- 



