52 NATIONAL TRENDS IN BIOLOGY 



"To my mind the greatest achievement of biology, 

 which is at last being realized, is negative: that science, 

 when placed in any sort of straight- jacket (of precon- 

 ceived theory), leads into blind alleys." 



This fact is instanced in the following cases : 



1. In embryology, the mistake of interpreting all phe- 

 nomena of development as ancestral indications is now 

 generally admitted. All this is well shown by the writings 

 of such men as T. H. Morgan, Wheeler, Jennings, Ritter, 

 and a number of others. 



2. In genetics, the work of Jennings, Conklin, Morgan, 

 and others has shown that environment and heredity stand 

 on an equal basis. Heredity is not the all-powerful influ- 

 ence formerly taught, and environment nothing. Both 

 are coequal. 



3. Physiology cannot achieve results by ignoring anat- 

 omy. A structure functions only in relation to an environ- 

 ment (internal or external). Physiology, by disregarding 

 anatomy and ecology has proceeded no whit further from 

 the position Goethe criticized in Faust a hundred years 

 ago with the words, 



"Wer will was lebendiges beschreiben 



Sucht erst den Geist heraus zu treiben. 

 Encheiresin naturae nennts die Chemie 

 Spottet ihrer selbst und weiss nicht wie.'^ 

 Organisms cannot be understood by studying the anat- 

 omy, the environment, or the functions alone. There must 

 be interdependent study. The same writers mentioned 

 above also have written on this matter. 



