28o CARNEGIE INSTITUTION 



Stanford University, Cal., August 28, 1902. 

 To the Board of Trustees of the Carnegie Institution. 



Gentlemen : I have received a copy of an outHne of a plan for a 

 proposed Vivarium for Experimental Evolution, suggested by Mr. 

 Roswell H. Johnson, of the University of Wisconsin. 



Permit me to say that, in my judgment, the establishment of such 

 an institution, if placed in charge of some man of high skill in han- 

 dling this class of experiments, would be an extremely desirable 

 piece of work in the line of advanced research, and I trust that the 

 Committee of the Carnegie Institution in charge of this matter will 

 give it careful consideration. 

 Very truly yours, 



David S. Jordan. 



BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT STATION FOR STUDYING 



EVOLUTION 



By Charles B. Davenport 



Zoological Laboratory, 

 University of Chicago, May 5, 1902. 



To the Trustees of the Carnegie Institution. 



Gentlemen : I beg leave to present for your consideration the 

 following proposal for the establishment and maintenance by the 

 Institution of a Biological Experiment Station for the study of 

 evolution. 



1. Aims. The aims of this establishment would be the analytic 

 and experimental study of the causes of specific differentiation — of 

 race change. 



2. Methods. The methods of attacking the problem must be de- 

 veloped as a result of experience. At present the following seem 

 most important : 



(a) Cross breeding of animals and plants to find the laws of 

 commingling of qualities. The study of the laws and limits of in- 

 heritance. 



(b) The experimental production of variation, both by internal . 

 operations, such as hybridization, or by change of external condi- 

 tions. 



