Appendix to "An Introduction to 



a Biology" 



Mendelian Practice in the light of Bergson's 



Biology ^ 



I 



The boundary of the territory of biology marches with 

 that of the science of agriculture at one point, or rather 

 in one region, as does the boundary of Germany with that 

 of France. In this region the academic science of biology 

 touches the practical science of agriculture. And this con- 

 tact has been to a great extent brought about by the 

 development of the ideas of heredity which we owe to 

 Mendel. 



But on its other frontier the territory of biology has 

 recently come in contact with that of philosophy. This 

 contact has been effected by the work of M. Bergson ; and 

 it has to be confessed that the reception of this friendly 

 invasion has been a sullen, and in many cases a pecuHarly 

 ofiensive defensive, so that the only success hitherto achieved 

 by M. Bergson in the ranks of the biologists has been a few 

 prisoners here and there. This, in my opinion, is the great- 

 est event, so far, in the history of thought in the twentieth 

 century : the realisation by a philosopher — and a philo- 

 sopher who has already captured the imagination of the 

 imaginative section of mankind — the realisation by a philo- 



^ From a paper read to a joint meeting of the Agricultural Discussion 

 Society and the Scientific Society, Aberdeen University, January 15th, 1915. 



90 



