Introductory Lecture. 153 



heard the objection occasionally put forth, that they are in- 

 compatible with active professional or business occupations ; 

 or, at least, that the carrying them out worthily, and in a 

 spirit of true science, not mere dilletanteism, cannot be ef- 

 fected without an interference with the sterner duties of life. 



Plausible as this objection seems, it is not well founded. 

 The proof that it is not so lies in the fact that many of the 

 ablest advancers of the natural history, as well as of other 

 sciences, and, I might add, of literature and philosophy, are 

 men diligently engaged in daily duties of a different kind, 

 and doing their tasks thoroughly and well. The names of 

 many of the most eminent of British men of science are those 

 of fully occupied physicians and successful merchants. Who, 

 for example, have done better service towards the investiga- 

 tion of the zoology of the British Islands than Dr George 

 Johnston of Berwick, and Professor Thomas Bell of London, 

 both carrying out extensive and original researches whilst 

 busily engaged in arduous and never-neglected professional 

 duties % In the last century, Ellis, a busy London merchant, 

 changed the whole face of zoophytology. Only last year died 

 Charles Stokes, a name not popularly known, but very fa- 

 miliar to men of science at home and abroad, similarly oc- 

 cupied with Ellis, who, nevertheless, found time to aid, by his 

 extensive and original knowledge and ever-judicious advice, 

 almost every naturalist of whatever denomination in Europe. 

 At the present moment I could point out several of our very 

 best zoologists and geologists among the most diligent and 

 ablest of British merchants. The law, too, might do much 

 for us, but does not often add to our ranks ; yet it is a curious 

 fact, that one of our chief authorities for the anatomy of 

 the invertebrata is a lawyer. The army and navy have more 

 time at their disposal ; but it is not among the idle portion of 

 the services that we find the scientific amidst arduous duties ; 

 and a naval officer, in command of one of our ships now in the 

 Black Sea, has contrived to acquire and communicate the first 

 satisfactory and scientific information concerning the coal- 

 fields of Asia Minor. Let it not be pleaded, then, that 

 science is to be put aside on account of active professional occu- 

 pations of any kind. The excuse never comes from the able 



