FIRST LECTURE. 



SPECIALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION, 



COMPANION PRINCIPLES OF ALL PROGRESS. THE MOST 



IMPORTANT NEED OF AMERICAN BIOLOGY. 



By C. O. whitman. 



A HEALTHY faith in the progress of biology pre- 

 supposes a correct understanding of the tendency to 

 speciaUze. It is important to know not only that special- 

 ization is a necessity, but a necessity that need not be 

 feared. It may sound a little paradoxical to assert, that 

 this tendency means union as well as separation ; but 

 it is only a truth illustrated in the most familiar facts 

 of science and of every-day life. Let us look at some 

 of the broader aspects of this tendency, in order to 

 learn whither it is carrying us and what its implications 

 are. 



Naturalists are long accustomed to the idea that the 

 living body represents a commonwealth of cells. The 

 metaphor is based, not upon superficial or fanciful re- 

 semblances, but upon analogies that lie at the very 

 foundation of organic and social existence. On the 

 same grounds that the sociologist affirms that a society 



I 



