VIII PREFACE 



should like to use this occasion to thank the several publishers 

 for the permission to reprint these articles. 



The last two chapters, Nos. 10 and 11, have not been pubHshed 

 before and are of an entirely different kind, stepping forth, as 

 they do, without the stately periwig of a list of references. They 

 should be considered as a divertimento, though not without pas- 

 sages in a minor key; specimens of a sort that rarely finds its 

 way into a book dealing with scientific matters. Chapter 10 is a 

 specimen of a recent lecture, as it was prepared for actual 

 delivery, without undergoing the normal editing for publication 

 which consists mostly in the substitution of references to the 

 literature for any critical or unusual remarks that may have been 

 made. Chapter 11 is a specimen of many conversations that I 

 have participated in over the last few years; it is, of course, a 

 composite of many such talks, a collage, as it were: no single 

 person could be so dim. 



There will be some, I am certain, that will find the application 

 to scientific problems of the means of humor, of satire, and even 

 of puns, these metaphysical hiccups of language, most unbe- 

 coming and frivolous. But there are many levels at which 

 criticism ought to be exercised; and the critique of some of the 

 concepts of modern science, and especially of its aberrations, has 

 virtually disappeared at a time when it is more necessary than 

 ever; at a time when the polarization of science has gone so far 

 that one now "runs" for scientific awards as for a political office; 

 that scientific lectures begin to sound like keynote speeches at 

 political conventions; that scientific reporting has replaced the 

 intimate gossip from Hollywood; that the persuasiveness of truth 

 has been replaced by the strength of the acclamation; in other 

 words, that cliques are surrounded by claques. The emergence 

 of a Scientific Establishment, of a power elite, has given rise to 

 a remarkable phenomenon: the appearance of what is called 

 dogmas in biological thinking. Reason and judgment are inclined 

 to abdicate when faced with a dogma; but they should not. Just 

 as in political life, a stiff upper lip often conceals a soft under- 

 belly. It is imperative that the most stringent criticism be ap- 



