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FREDERICK A. LYONS- 
the divisions and sab-divisions into which the study of nature has 
been separated. It is only within modern times, however, that 
natural science has been properly cultivated; but during the last 
century the progress has been so great that boundaries are well 
defined, and seekers after truth have at the present time even 
been converted into specialists of a more or less narrow groove. 
Each one, however, contributes his share of facts to the general 
whole, and all take part in that sublime pursuit whose object is 
the uplifting of that mysterious veil. The highest truth that is to 
come will only be reached by the method of questioning nature, 
and not, as some would have us believe, by the solution of meta¬ 
physical problems. How exalted then is the humblest of those 
who devotes his energies to the pursuit of natural science in any 
of its branches. 
Perhaps the noblest of all these sub-divisions and the one 
from which most is to be expected, at any rate the one most in¬ 
teresting to us, is the science of Biology , that science which has 
for its object the study of life —how it is produced, and what 
are the conditions of its manifestation on the earth. It comprises, 
as you see, all living matter, whether vegetable or animal, for the 
principal of life is the same in both kingdoms, and all varieties of 
form, size, or habit, are but modifications of the vital principle 
produced by differences in conditions and surroundings. 
The scope is so extensive that we must again sub-divide, and 
naturally we must study plants and animals separately. We are, 
then, now narrowed down to the particular study of animal life. 
But still the science is of such vast proportions that in a single 
life-time one individual could hope to cover but an insignificant 
portion of the entire field, so we are obliged to restrict our atten¬ 
tion to a comparatively small department, leaving the rest to the 
observation of others, though we all combine our results to form 
the general totality. 
We have then, centered on the study of the highest types of 
life; and as an off-shoot from this, the methods of best preserving 
life, and of restoring the animal to a condition of health when it 
has become the subject of abnormal or morbid conditions, be¬ 
come legitimate objects of enquiry. It is this that constitutes 
