PROBLEM OF EVOLUTION CAULLERY. 323 



pabilities. This is particularly true of biology, where, moreover, 

 many questions, notwithstanding their scientific importance, do not 

 lead to practical application, at any rate immediately. We succeed 

 too rarely in Europe in combining these resources, above all in com- 

 bining them rapidly enough. The European public does not suffi- 

 ciently realize their necessity and interest. And the action of the 

 state necessarily lacks the flexibility needful for rapid realization. 

 Thus Pasteur was able to organize the institution which bears his 

 name only at the end of his life, and at the inauguration he was 

 heard to say mournfully, " I enter here defeated by Time." In 

 America the power and the eagerness which private initiative gives 

 provide for this need. Truly the greatest wonder is that this liber- 

 ality is generally well conceived and well employed. 



It is also true that the problems of the day in contemporaneous 

 biology are nowhere else attacked at the present time with such 

 activity, perseverance, and success as in the United States. As we 

 look at different points on the biological horizon we see the studies 

 on the Mendelian theory of heredity in full development in numbers 

 of laboratories. It will be enough for me to cite in this connection 

 the names of Messrs. Castle and East in this very spot, and that of 

 Mr. T. H. Morgan, in New York. In the realm of the physiology 

 and the structure of the cell and of the Qgg, the researches of E. B. 

 Wilson, and of his pupils on the chromosomes; of J. Loeb on experi- 

 mental parthenogenesis; of F. E. Lillie on the fertilization of the 

 egg', of Calkins, and recently of Woodruff, on the senescence of 

 the infusoria, suffice to show the share which this country has had 

 in the advance of knowledge. And I ought also to mention numer- 

 ous works on embryology and on the study of the filiation of the 

 cells of the embryo (cell lineage), on regeneration, on the behavior 

 of the lower organisms, on geographic distribution, and the varia- 

 tions of the species studied from the most diverse sides ; all branches 

 of biology are flourishing vigorously. In addition, the United States, 

 more than any other country, has developed scientific institutions 

 designed for the study of the application of biology to agriculture, 

 to fisheries, etc. 



In the face of this situation, I wish to make it clear at the outset 

 that I have not the least expectation of bringing here a solution 

 of the problem of evolution. I have too full a realization of the 

 extent of the scientific movement aroused by this question in the 

 United States, and I hope to derive great benefit myself from my 

 stay here, from the contact which is permitted me with my col- 

 leagues and with their laboratories. This latter advantage is not 

 the least which arises from the exchange between the two uni- 

 versities. Nor have I the expectation of bringing to you a new 



