4 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PKOGEESS 



Mankind, after all, is but the highest branch of the great 

 evolutionary tree of the animal kingdom, and if the study of 

 zoology had done no more than estabhsh this fact, which lies 

 at the very root of human existence, it would have justified 

 its claim to recognition as an essential item in our educational 

 programme. The proper study of mankind is man, but before 

 you can study man with any prospect of success you must 

 study the animal kingdom to which he belongs and of which 

 he is the latest product. In other words, you must study 

 zoology. 



It is the infinitely varied relations of mankind with the 

 rest of the animal kingdom— with what we are accustomed to 

 speak of as the lower animals — that will occupy our attention 

 this evening, a subject so vast and complex that we shall be 

 able only to glance at some of its more general aspects, with a 

 brief reference to one or two specific questions, leaving it to 

 the eminent speciahsts who wiU address us later on to deal 

 in detail with particular problems of exceptional interest. 



In a certain very legitimate sense the interest which man- 

 kind takes in the rest of the animal kingdom is of the same 

 nature as the interest which any one of us takes in the past 

 and present members of his family. You may study your 

 surviving relatives from purely sentimental or altruistic 

 motives or for the sake of what you can get out of them, and 

 you may study your family pedigree either for the purpose of 

 impressing your acquaintances with your dignity and import- 

 ance, or with the much more wholesome object of learning all 

 that can be learnt of the causes which have led up to your 

 present position in the world, and of seeking in the history of 

 the past guidance for the future. 



If we confine our attention to the animal kingdom as it 

 exists to-day we realise immediately how completely the 

 struggle for existence has turned in favour of man. The 

 larger animals have been for the most part completely exter- 

 minated, while those which remain have been subdued or even 

 enlisted in the service of the dominant type. In no part of 

 the world has man, provided with the weapons which he has 



