EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY 201 



an instance of which, having recently come to my attention 

 from the public press, I will cite as an illustration : 



"The utility of such questions brings to mind a com- 

 panion question put by Mr. Lucien Hugh Alexander con- 

 cerning the utility of some of the investigations by the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington. Mr. Alexander does not question, 

 for example, the improvement in 'man's physical well-being' 

 contributed by investigations as to 'Heredity of Hair Length 

 in Guinea Pigs and Its Bearing on the Theor}^ of Pure 

 Gametes.' He thinks, however, (stating his case in the Green 

 Bag, February) that a million-dollar foundation for juris- 

 prudence would do more toward 'strengthening the great vital 

 force in our civilization — law and government' than a 

 'foundation' for the preparation and publication of such liter- 

 ary and scientific works as these whose titles he culls from the 

 last bulletin of the Carnegie Institution. 



"A few of these titles are, 'Inheritance in Poultry,' 

 'Rhythmical Pulsations in Scyphomedusae,' 'Coat Patterns in 

 Rats and Guinea Pigs' and 'Variation and Correlation in 

 Crayfish.' " 



The very utterance of this criticism would indicate in its 

 author a complete ignorance of even the general course of 

 events in the investigations which lie back of any one of the 

 achievements of civilization whose roots are in science. 

 Without hostility to the law, one may well venture the 

 opinion that the quagmire of legal procedure in our own 

 country today scarcely justifies a critical attitude toward the 

 subject of scientific investigation, which has brought to 

 humanity, almost entirely as a gift for no money and without 

 price, the practical and vital achievements whose beginnings 

 have so commonly been made in research seemingly quite re- 

 mote from any utilitarian values. Some of the very researches 

 which are here contemptuously cited as examples of scientific 

 futilities deal with the general problem of heredity, than which 

 none can be more important for society. The facts of these 



