BIOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL — DAVENPORT. 87 



BIOLOGY, EXPERIMENTAL. 



STATION FOR EXPERIMENTAL EVOLUTION AT COLD SPRING 



HARBOR, NEW YORK.* 



By Charles B. Davenport. 



In planning an experimental study of evolution, investigations 

 already in progress elsewhere were taken into consideration in order 

 that work might not be duplicated, but rather that the more difficult, 

 expensive, and time-consuming operations might be taken up, and 

 that there might be brought about a coordination of the work being 

 done in the subject all over the world. 



The factors of evolution are three — variation, inheritance, and 

 adjustment. Studies may be made on any one of these factors or 

 on all three together ; as a matter of fact, they can hardly be studied 

 wholly independently. Variation has been much studied during 

 the past decade by quantitative and other methods. These have 

 been studies in evolutionarj- statics and have required no special 

 plant. Since these studies can be as well made elsewhere, we have 

 devoted little time to them. Inheritance of variants is a dynamical 

 matter whose investigation is be3^ond the ordinary facilities of uni- 

 versities as at present organized, and requires continuity of work 

 during long periods of time. Variants are of more or less signifi- 

 cance for evolution, according to the method of their inheritance ; 

 so the study of heredity furnishes a test of the importance of the 

 different kinds of variation. Since studies in inheritance have been 

 relatively neglected, despite their importance for evolution, our first 

 efforts have been directed primarily toward such studies. To lead 

 to valid generalizations, such investigations should be made broadly ; 

 consequently work has been or is planned to be undertaken in co- 

 operation with others on all the main groups of animals and plants. 



There are two ways in which the work might be divided among 

 the workers — by topics or by material. While the investigation of 

 a topic b}' one person would be under conditions of completer knowl- 

 edge the ideal method, it is better, in present practice, to divide on 

 the basis of materials to be studied. The reason for this is that, 

 especially among animals, each kind of material offers special diffi- 

 culties in rearing and breeding that have to be mastered before further 

 progress can be made ; and the master}^ of the difficulties in the breed- 

 ing of a single species may demand an investigator's whole attention 

 during one or many years. 



*GrantNo. 218. $12,000 for investigations during 1905. ( For first report see 

 Year Book No. 3, pp. 23-32.) 



