352 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the development of the embryo and sought to trace the modifications 

 resulting from changes in the conditions of growth and development. 

 It opened the way to those extensive experiments on regulation that 

 have been engaged in by some of our American zoologists. Experi- 

 ments were further extended to the study of heredity and evolution. 



Thus description, comparison and experiment, came to mark differ- 

 ent phases in the progress of zoology. Certain other nineteenth century 

 advances can be merely alluded to. Those that had the greatest influ- 

 ence on the progress of zoology were the establishment of the cell theory, 

 the discovery of protoplasm and the acceptance of the doctrine of 

 organic evolution. If time permitted, a fuller consideration of these 

 great events in the history of zoological science might be profitable, but 

 I must hasten to another division of the subject. 



The Idea of Service. — In these days we have come to estimate the 

 worth of achievements in the terms of service. We hear on every hand 

 the inquiry, How is this man or that man fitted to serve his time and 

 generation ? When inquiries come to the universities regarding one of 

 their graduates seeking place in the world, the chief inquiry is, what is 

 his promise of service ? We do not always mean by this the narrow idea 

 of direct utility — the faculty to make something that will sell — but 

 more often that capacity for usefulness to the state and to society tbat 

 depends on broad education, on discernment of essentials, that has been 

 gained by freeing the mind from hereditary hindrances and from those 

 grosser misunderstandings of natural phenomena that we class as super- 

 stitions. The university is a place where such basal training is carried 

 on. The activity of the university is a crusade not only against igno- 

 rance, but also against superstition. 



It is this kind of service for which the progress of science is espe- 

 cially conspicuous, and this brings us naturally to the consideration of 

 the service of one science in particular. I wish to maintain that for the 

 past century the progress of zoology has exercised a strong and whole- 

 some influence upon the intellectual development of the race. The 

 date of a century is an arbitrary limit, but the event I have in mind is 

 the publication in 1809 of Lamarck's " Philosophic Zoologique," that 

 contained the first comprehensive theory of organic evolution that has 

 survived to the present day. 



Very likely the idea is a novel one to many that the influence of zo- 

 ology upon intellectual progress has been considerable. While one may 

 not dissent from the proposition, he might very well wish to have it 

 supported by specific illustrations. 



Influence of Zoology on General Enlightenment. — Let us consider 

 first the part this science has played in general enlightenment. Its 

 influence has been great in clearing the atmosphere of thought, in dis- 

 pelling clouds and in freeing the mind from the bonds of inherited 

 prejudice and traditional superstition. At the beginning of the revival 



