1899-19°°-] 55 1 



When we compare the end of this century with the 

 beginning nothing is more remarkable than the specialisation 

 which has taken place in all branches of knowledge, and 

 nowhere more than in Natural Science. Science has extended 

 its bounds to such an extent that it is impossible for one mind 

 to cover all the ground. Life is too short. For this reason 

 men of science have of necessity become specialists, and the 

 lament is again and again being raised and not without reason 

 that the old race of Naturalists is passing away. Moreover 

 the great improvement in appliances has contributed to the 

 same result. The microscope has supplanted the pocket glass, 

 the Laboratory and the Herbarium, natures open fields, and 

 the " Field Naturalist," a " House Naturalist." 



I am not railing against progress but only against some of 

 the evils which have accompanied it. The microscope, the 

 scalpel, the prism, have added immensely to our knowledge 

 and to the interest of every branch of Natural Science, and 

 where this goes hand in hand with field work, and the 

 specialist is careful to keep in touch with his fellow workers in 

 the field and in other subjects, all is well. But we cannot but 

 regret the passing away of the older type of Naturalist. Nay, 

 we cannot let him go, for there is no reason why he should 

 disappear altogether from the stage if in some necessary points 

 he were adapted and modified to suit the requirements of the 

 time. 



The change I have described is acknowledged and deplored 

 by many of our best men, and they say that our hope lies in 

 the Field Clubs, and that the Field Clubs do a work in this 

 respect which is unique ; they alone can save the older type 

 from becoming extinct. Our Schools of Science at the 

 Universities and elsewhere are turning out a new race interested 

 in structure and physiology more than in systematic work. 

 Naturally our professorships are filled by the new men, and 

 unless our Field Clubs can gain recruits and train them in the 

 older traditions it is likely the divorce between morphologists 

 and systematists will become more pronounced as time goes on. 



