An Introduction to a Biology 



other means (besides working with the hand) by 

 which this effect could be produced, namely, the 

 spreading of dung over, and its subsequent incor- 

 poration with, the soil. The biologist has chosen 

 to " cover the field " rather than to dig in that 

 little plot, the study of himself. He has preferred 

 extension to depth, and in so doing he has followed 

 the line of least resistance. Anyone can spread 

 dung ; it takes a man five years to learn to dig 

 well. Man's attention is so accustomed to look 

 outwards, that it is very difficult for him to turn 

 it inwards upon himself. And so the fertile plot 

 has been very much neglected. 



A variety of circumstances has conspired to 

 exaggerate this extensive character of biological know- 

 ledge to such a pitch that in his anxiety to leave 

 none of the field uncovered the biologist has be- 

 come careless as to whether the covering is thick 

 enough to be of any use. In choosing subjects for 

 investigation he has set more store on the novelty 

 of the result than on the question whether his re- 

 sults will bring us closer to an understanding of 

 life. And the result of this aiming at the target 

 of novelty has often been that he has hit the bull's- 

 eye of triviality. 



This desire for novelty has become so great that 

 there is a danger of the convention growing up 

 that a particular animal or problem is one man's 

 preserve, to trespass upon which shall be a breach 

 of scientific etiquette. And, as it is, the fact that 

 somebody has worked out the development of a 

 particular animal is regarded as an argument against 

 the selection of that animal as a subject of embryo- 



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