IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
53 
as yet far distant; du Bois-Reymond declared that it could 
never be attained at all. To-day, we know certain phases 
of cell-life fairly well, but the obstacles in the way of 
further progress are more serious than those already sur- 
mounted. However, the biology of the cell has by no 
means reached a dead-point; we have but just begun to 
make full use of the data afforded by sister sciences; the 
experimental method has yet rich treasures to yield. We 
assuredly are justified in concluding that one field after 
another will continue to be reclaimed from obscurity in 
the future just as in the past, and we reasonably may ex- 
pect a working conception of cell-life ultimately to emerge 
from modern investigation. 
Iowa City, April 14, 1904. 
