Modes of Research in Genetics 



By RAYMOND PEARL, Ph.D. 



Biologist of the Maine Agricultural Experiment Station 



The field of biological research in which there is to-day 

 the greatest activity is unquestionably genetics. In any 

 new branch of science, little attention is given in the first 

 flush of investigation to the logical concepts and philo- 

 sophical principles which underlie it. This lack of philo- 

 sophical poise is now becoming rather generally apparent 

 in genetic research. The present book is a contribution 

 to the methodology of genetics in a philosophical sense. 

 It attempts first to examine carefully and then to appraise 

 the value of the more important current methods of 

 attacking the problems of heredity and breeding, including 

 the statistical or biometrical method, Mendelism, etc. The 

 book should, on the one hand, interest every professional 

 student of biology, in any of its branches, who is at all 

 concerned with the question of the philosophical founda- 

 tion of his science. On the other hand, the publicist and 

 man of affairs who is concerned to know what significance 

 is to be attached to the eugenics movement should find in 

 this book some aid in orienting; himself. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



