240 BIOLOGICAL LECTURES. 



things now called "experimental," that I must explain what 

 I have in mind sufficiently to make the general purpose 

 intelligible. 



It is not that experimental embryology redundantly described 

 as "developmental mechanics " which is now in vogue; not 

 laboratory physiology, even in its wider application to animals ; 

 not egg-shaking, heteromorphism, heliotropism, and the like, 

 — not any of these things, but experimental natural history, 

 or biology, in its more general and comprehensive sense. It 

 is not the natural history of the tourist or the museum collector 

 or the systematist, but the modern natural history, for which 

 Darwin laid the foundation, and which Semper, Romanes, 

 Varigny, Weismann, Galton, Lloyd Morgan, and others have 

 advocated and practised to the extent of the meager means at 

 their command. The plan which I should propose, however, 

 has not, so far as I am aware, been definitely formulated by 

 any one, although some of its features were indicated several 

 years ago when I proposed such a station in connection with 

 the University of Chicago. The essentials of the plan were 

 sketched as follows : 



" Experimental biology represents not only an extension of 

 physiological inquiry into all provinces of life, but also the 

 application of its methods to morphological problems ; in short, 

 it covers the whole field in which physiology and morphology 

 can work best hand in hand . . . 



" A lake biological station, equipped for experimental work, 

 would mark a new departure for which science is now ripe. 

 Such a station has nowhere been provided, but its need has 

 been felt and acknowledged by the foremost biologists of to- 

 day. There are no problems in the whole range of biology of 

 higher scientific interest or deeper practical import to humanity 

 than those which centre in variation and heredity. For the 

 solution of these problems and a thousand others that turn upon 

 them, facilities for loiig-contimied expcrwiejital study, under con- 

 ditions that admit of perfect control, must be provided. Such 

 facilities imply first of all material for study, and that nature 

 here supplies in rich abundance. Then a convenient observa- 

 tory with a scientific staff is required. In addition, — and this 



