LIFE AND EXPERIMENT 



investigated system determines the experimental results 

 to such a high degree that the value of the investigation 

 depends upon recognizing and appreciating this quality of 

 the object. 



The most exact knowledge of the normal form and form- 

 changes of the living thing to be investigated is thus the 

 prerequisite for present-day attack of biological problems. 

 On the strengthening of our knowledge of these rests all 

 progress of modern biological research, no matter how 

 grandly physical, chemical, or mathematical it is. 



For a long time to come biology will need accurate 

 description and exact observation. The necessity for 

 confirming the classic and exact studies still remains; it is 

 imperative that these be extended. The demand for filling 

 in gaps persists. Where minute details are wanting, they 

 must be supplied. Wherever uncertainty or doubt 

 obtrudes concerning a descriptive datum, this should as 

 far as possible be removed. However much we desire 

 quantitative instead of qualitative studies in biology, 

 however much more we estimate elaborate experimental 

 studies involving knowledge and skill in the use of physics 

 and chemistry and mathematics, however much we yearn 

 to place biology in the same category with the more exact 

 sciences, we can not abandon purely descriptive work. I 

 Ado not mean, I repeat, that biology stands irreconcilably 

 apart from the other natural sciences. But I see no omen 

 to indicate that all biological phenomena are capable of 

 quantitative treatment.^ By chance to-morrow or it 

 may be in the very instant of this writing by some great 

 discovery made in total ignorance of the morphological 

 substratum of biology, someone might be able to appreciate 

 the secret of life in its entirety. But it is just as likely that 

 this biological millcnium may never come. And I for my 



^ Cf. Mellor, ^922^ on the use of mathematics in science. 



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