preparation, through the organisation of its biological department. Here
the student will find means of acquainting himself with the phenomena of
life in their broadest acceptation. He will study not botany and
zoology, which, as I have said, would take him too far away from his
ultimate goal; but, by duly arranged instruction, combined with work in
the laboratory upon the leading types of animal and vegetable life, he
will lay a broad, and at the same time solid, foundation of biological
knowledge; he will come to his medical studies with a comprehension of
the great truths of morphology and of physiology, with his hands trained
to dissect and his eyes taught to see. I have no hesitation in saying
that such preparation is worth a full year added on to the medical
curriculum. In other words, it will set free that much time for
attention to those studies which bear directly upon the student's most
grave and serious duties as a medical practitioner.

Up to this point I have considered only the teaching aspect of your
great foundation, that function of the university in virtue of which it
plays the part of a reservoir of ascertained truth, so far as our
symbols can ever interpret nature. All can learn; all can drink of this
lake. It is given to few to add to the store of knowledge, to strike new
springs of thought, or to shape new forms of beauty. But so sure as it
is that men live not by bread, but by ideas, so sure is it that the
future of the world lies in the hands of those who are able to carry the
interpretation of nature a step further than their predecessors; so
certain is it that the highest function of a university is to seek out
those men, cherish them, and give their ability to serve their kind full
play.

I rejoice to observe that the encouragement of research occupies so
prominent a place in your official documents, and in the wise and
liberal inaugural address of your president. This subject of the
encouragement, or, as it is sometimes called, the endowment of research,
has of late years greatly exercised the minds of men in England. It was
one of the main topics of discussion by the members of the Royal
Commission of whom I was one, and who not long since issued their
report, after five years' labour. Many seem to think that this question
is mainly one of money; that you can go into the market and buy
research, and that supply will follow demand, as in the ordinary course
of commerce. This view does not co