1897] Biology and Medicine. 761 
of variation in living organisms, the influence of physical and 
chemical agencies, and in general of environment, upon the 
behavior of living cells and organisms, the relations of micro- 
organisms to fermentation and disease, the finer architecture 
of the central nervous system, and countless other themes. 
An especially interesting and new direction of development, to 
which the biological department of this University has made 
important contributions, is the application of the experimental 
method to the solution of certain morphological problems. 
From this source we may reasonably expect valuable light to 
be thrown upon the great problems of development, variation 
and heredity, and thereby we may acquire a clearer and more 
accurate insight than we now possess into the factors con- 
cerned in organic evolution. 
No branch of human knowledge exceeds in interest and im- 
portance the study of biology; none has made greater advances 
during this century of scientific progress; none is of more im- 
portance to human welfare; none has more deeply impressed 
modern philosophic thought. Biology has profoundly influ- 
enced man’s attitude toward Nature and the views as to his 
own position in the scale of being. It has important bearings 
upon social and moral questions. With true religion it has 
no contest, whatever may have been its influence upon dog- 
matic theology. It reveals the marvellous fitness of organic 
nature, and it cultivates one of the finest human sentiments, 
the love of nature. Who but a biologist, who was also a poet, 
could have sung of the chambered nautilus ? 
‘Year after year beheld the silent toil 
That spread his lustrous coil ; 
Still, as the spiral grew, 
He left the past year's dwelling for the new, 
Stole with soft step its shining archway through, 
Built up its idle door, 
Stretched in his last-found home, and knew the old no more,” 
To those who seek the practical utility of scientific study 
biology can show its triumphs, but here as elsewhere in science 
the important discoveries which have found useful applica- 
tions have been made by the devotees of pure science rather 
than by those who make technical utility their guiding prin- 
ciple. 
