Ixxviii PEOCEEDINGS OF THE 



algebraical memoir between two zoological or botanical mono- 

 graphs does its author no more credit than a technical botanical 

 description of new genera in a Journal of fasbion. In either case 

 tbe paper is absolutely lost till ferreted out by some industrious 

 compiler ; and then it is sure to produce confusion as to dates and 

 rights of priority. Innumerable instances of a similar kiad will 

 probably be brought to light by the Eoyal Society's forthcoming 

 indexes. 



The same arguments apply, only with less force, to the separa- 

 tion of Greology and Mineralogy from Biology* ; but when we come 

 to the multiplied subdivisions of Zoology and Botany, we are met 

 by drawbacks which are beginning to be much felt. For the 

 distinction and classiiication of species, for the accurate observa- 

 tion of individual structure, for the collecting, in short, of those 

 data upon which the superstructure of science must be founded, 

 we require that men of the greatest ability should devote them- 

 selves especially, we will not say exclusively, to special classes of 

 beings ; but those higher branches of the science which are now 

 attracting so much attention, the study of the phenomena of life, 

 require a general knowledge of, or reference to, all classes. There 

 is, with great individual diversity, so much general analogy in the 

 principles of life in all the most dissimilar sets of beings, so much of 

 mutual dependence of the one on the other, that in a science 

 where the facts upon which we form an hypothesis are so few — the 

 circumstantial evidence on which we found our judgments so 

 scanty — we require in every branch to check our conclusions by 

 what has been observed in others. Whilst therefore there is , 

 mucK practical use in such typographical arrangements as to 

 enable every votary of science to furnisli his shelves with what 

 answers his special pursuit alone, it is no less essential that all 

 discussion of general principles, whether in print or oral, should 

 be readily brought to tbe notice of all. 



The principle of the mutual bearing of diiferent sciences pre- 



* In reading this address to the Meeting, I made use of the term 

 Biology in the restricted sense which, after the example of many writers, I 

 had given to it in my addresses of 1862 and 1863, and I ventured to give 

 further currency to the word Biontology alluded to in 1863. Now, however 

 as the extension of Biology to Zoology and Botany together in their widest 

 sense has been further sanctioned by the British Association, who have given 

 that name to their Section D, I feel compelled to follow their example. In 

 matters of language, the pui'port of which is to make one's self intelligible, 

 theory must give way to custom. 



