GENETICS 327 



find a place in the curriculum, and I pointed out that the improve- 

 ment in the strains of plants and animals had done at least as much 

 — more, I really meant — to advance agriculture than had been accom- 

 plished by other means. My advice found little favor, and I was taken 

 to task, afterwards, by a prominent advocate of the new school for rais- 

 ing a side issue. Breeding was a purely empirical affair. Common 

 sense and selection comprised the whole business, and physiology flew 

 at higher game. I am, nevertheless, happy now to reflect that of the 

 work which is making the Cambridge School of Agriculture a force for 

 progress in the agricultural world the remarkable researches and re- 

 sults of my late colleague, Professor Biffen, based as they have been on 

 modern discoveries in the pure sciences of breeding, occupy a high and 

 greatly honored place. 



In conclusion I would sound once more the note with which I be- 

 gan. If we are to progress fast there must be no separation made be- 

 tween pure and applied science. The practical man with his wide 

 knowledge of specific natural facts, and the scientific student ever seek- 

 ing to find the hard general truths which the diversity of nature hides 

 — truths out of which any lasting structure of progress must be built 

 — have everything to gain from free interchange of experience and 

 ideas. To ensure this community of purpose those who are engaged 

 in scientific work should continually strive to make their aims and 

 methods known at large, neither exaggerating their confidence nor con- 

 cealing their misgivings, 



Till the world is wrought 

 To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not. 



