viii PREFACE 



twenty in the United States. The letters were written in 

 English, German, French, and Spanish, thus permitting 

 each recipient to write in whatever medium he found best 

 suited to express himself freely. 

 The questions asked were : 



1. What do you consider the most important work done 

 in biology generally, and in your country particularly, 

 during the past thirty years? Why? {a) From a purely 

 scientific point of view? (b) From the point of view of 

 service to humanity? 



2. What biological problems have been solved during 

 that time ? 



3. (a) In what specific fields have most of the biolog- 

 ical workers been employed? (b) What gave the impetus 

 which brought about the interest in that specific field ? 



4. What do you consider the most fundamental prob- 

 lems of biology today? Why? 



5. What in your opinion is the position of the ablest 

 biological workers of your country in regard to vitalism 

 and mechanism? 



6. What work in biology, if any, has had sufficient in- 

 fluence actually to change the life of your people in 

 any way, in politics, education, philosophy, psychology, 

 religion, etc.? 



7. What matters, not specifically asked for in the above 

 questions, do you think should be covered in an article 

 giving a biological survey of our generation? 



It will be noted that none of the questions could be 



