A BIOLOGICAL FARM. 2 I 5 



The most notable move in this direction is that of Professor 

 Cossar Ewart, of the University of Edinburgh. "The Penycuik 

 Experiments" the first product of Professor Ewart's enter- 

 prise form a brilliant illustration of the kind of fruit to be ex- 

 pected from a farm devoted to experimental research. Single- 

 handed, Professor Ewart attacks the problems of heredity, and 

 quickly shows how decisive are direct experiments in dealing 

 with such subjects as telegony, prepotency, reversion, inbreed- 

 ing, etc. 







The plans proposed by Romanes and Varigny had as chief 

 ends in view demonstrative tests of the theory of the origin of 

 species by natural selection. But the contest between the old 

 belief in the immutability of species and the new doctrine of de- 

 scent has been decided, and the original idea of the farm has con- 

 sequently ceased to have great influence. 



The functions to be fulfilled by a farm are no longer prescribed 

 by the exigencies of theories, but by the deeper and broader 

 needs of pure research on living organisms. The problems of 

 heredity and variability are fundamental, and naturally form the 

 center of interest. Variability is the source of new species and 

 the fountain of all progressive development in the organic world. 

 In heredity lies the power of propagation and continuity of spe- 

 cies. These are inexhaustible subjects, from the investigation of 

 which must flow rich accessions to knowledge, which will redound 

 to the advancement of human welfare. 



These subjects are in some aspects and details amenable to 

 laboratory research ; but for the most part they can only be 

 effectively dealt with under conditions represented in the farm. 

 This holds, for example, in that most promising branch of experi- 

 mental biology hybridisation. Botanical gardens and zoological 

 parks have been utilized to some extent in this work, but they 

 are adapted to show-purposes, and of little value for research of 

 this kind. The far-reaching importance of this subject, both for 

 science and practical breeding purposes, is well attested in Mr. 

 Ewart's experiments, in those of Hugo de Vries, as recorded in 

 his monographs on the origin of species in the plant world, and 

 again in Mr. Bateson's " Experimental Studies in the Physiology 

 of Heredity." 



