CHAPTER III 



A CROSS SECTION OF PRESENT-DAY 

 BIOLOGICAL THOUGHT 



Now we approach the most interesting question of all : 

 In what way, if any, has the work of biologists influenced 

 the life of a people, philosophically, educationally, eco- 

 nomically, socially, politically, and religiously? 



In our discussion up to this point, we have found a prac- 

 tical unanimity. It is true that individuals have consid- 

 ered some finding, probably just on the borderland where 

 we did not yet know its exact significance, of sufficient 

 worth to be included in a list of matters of note, while 

 others felt that the evidence for its inclusion was not quite 

 sufficient. As a whole, however, there was little difference 

 of opinion, and when there was it was always due to an 

 attempted explanation or interpretation. 



Since we shall have to deal with explanations or in- 

 terpretations in this lecture, one is not astonished to find 

 biologists themselves at considerable variance with one 

 another. In this part of our survey, one runs the entire 

 gamut of possible explanations, from that of the writer 

 who flatly and with decided finality insists that biology, 

 as such, never has, does not now, and never can influence 

 anything or anybody, to the one who insists with the 

 most enthusiastic avowal, that every advance the world 

 has made, is making, or ever can make, must always, in 



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