vi ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PEOGKESS 



as quite unnecessary, if not actually derogatory, to base the 

 claims of any department of learning mainly, or even largely, 

 upon utilitarian considerations. Knowledge for its own sake 

 is a fine watchword, but those who control the national purse- 

 strings and have to justify their expenditure in the eyes of an 

 exacting and not very far-seeing public, not unnaturally like 

 to be able to show some return which the public is capable 

 of appreciating. The utilitarian aspect of our subject cannot, 

 therefore, be altogether ignored — and indeed it is only right 

 that the vast material resources of the animal kingdom should 

 be fully exploited in the interests of mankind. At the same 

 time it is no less necessary that the eyes of the public should 

 be opened to the value of biological studies from a purely 

 academic and educational point of view, and if our national 

 system of education is to rest upon a broad and firm basis we 

 must insist upon the paramount importance of these subjects — 

 the investigation of which alone renders possible the scientific 

 study of man himself in all his manifold relations. 



In arranging the present course it was necessary to secure, 

 as far as possible, an adequate treatment of the subject 

 matter from various points of view, and our lecturers were 

 chosen, not merely on account of their academic distinction, 

 but because each one of them might be expected to have some- 

 thing of first-rate importance to say upon some particular 

 aspect of Zoological Science. The subjects of the different 

 lectures have, therefore, not been selected merely at random, 

 but there is a connection between them all which will be 

 obvious at once to the thoughtful reader. 



It may at least be claimed for the lectures that they 

 represent the latest views upon matters with which they deal. 



