It may be well that the general, as well as the
professional, public should have a sufficient knowledge of biological
truths to be able to take a rational interest in the discussion of such
problems, and to see, what I think they may hope to see, that, to those
who possess a sufficient elementary knowledge of Biology, they are not
all quite open questions.
Let me mention another important practical illustration of the value of
biological study. Within the last forty years the theory of agriculture
has been revolutionised. The researches of Liebig, and those of our own
Lawes and Gilbert, have had a bearing upon that branch of industry the
importance of which cannot be overestimated; but the whole of these new
views have grown out of the better explanation of certain processes
which go on in plants; and which, of course, form a part of the
subject-matter of Biology.
I might go on multiplying these examples, but I see that the clock won't
wait for me, and I must therefore pass to the third question to which I
referred: Granted that Biology is something worth studying, what is the
best way of studying it? Here I must point out that, since Biology is a
physical science, the method of studying it must needs be analogous to
that which is followed in the other physical sciences.
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