Reb ia 
856 Address of A. R. Wallace at the Glasgow Meeting. 
of these and a hundred other problems of like nature, was rarely 
approached by the old method of study, or if approached was 
only the subject of vague speculation. It is to the illustrious 
author of the “Origin of Species” that we are indebted, for 
teaching us how to study nature as one great, compact, and 
beautifully adjusted system. Under the touch of his magic 
wand the countless isolated:facts of internal and external strue- 
ture of living things—their habits, their colors, their develop- 
ment, their distribution, their geological history,—all fell into 
their approximate places; and although, from the intricacy of 
the subject and our very imperfect knowledge of the facts them- 
selves, much still remains uncertain; yet we can no longer 
doubt that even the minutest and most superficial peculiarines 
of animals and plants either, on the one hand, are or have been 
useful to them, or, on the other hand, have been developed un- 
system of observation and study, guided by certain ord os 
ould © 
his having developed, with rare patience and judgment, a gate : 
ey have infused life and vigor into our science, ere : 
‘opened up hitherto unthought of lines of research on - 
