2 Canadian Record of Science. 



" will contain, in addition to the Society's proceedings, 

 original papers on scientific subjects of interest to 

 Canadians and reprints of scientific papers published 

 elsewhere which deal with Canadian materials." 



All communications and correspondence concerning the 

 " Eecord " should be addressed. 



The Editor Canadian Eecord, 



32 University Street, 



Montreal. 



Zoological Problems for the Natural History 

 Society of Montreal. 



By E. W. MacBride. 



The subject matter of the study of natural history is of 

 wide, one might almost say, illimitable extent, embracing, 

 as it does, all animated nature in all its infinite variety. 

 Compared to it, the studies of physics and chemistry 

 appear of limited scope. In so vast a field, it is but 

 natural that first one aspect and then another aspect 

 should have rivetted the attention of students. In the 

 early part of the century, the main object of the naturalist 

 was to catalogue the different varieties of living things 

 which he saw around him, distinguishing them from one 

 another by external and easily recognized marks. Later, 

 the celebrated anatomists, Cuvier, Owen and many others, 

 laid the foundation of what has been called transcendental 

 zoology, that is, they recognized that there were deep- 

 seated agreements in the general plan of structure running 

 through whole groups of animals, and that to properly 

 classify them, animals must be thoroughly examined, 

 internal structure as well as external features being taken 

 into account. 



The meaning of these deep-seated unities underlying 

 differences puzzled the earlier anatomists very much. 



