202 UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI BULLETIN 



very investigations may prove of substantial importance in the 

 • discovery of laws of human heredity and variability which 

 shall make some of our present laws of society a thing of jest 

 for future generations and hasten the day when, instead of "a 

 government of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the law- 

 yers," we shall see one aflame, as with scientific desire it 

 seeks to know what is true in order that it may do what is 

 right. 



Viewed by the zoologist, man stands today more than 

 ever acutely confronting his destiny in this world, and his 

 future will depend upon his ability to increasingly control 

 the forces of nature by which he is surrounded. Since scien- 

 tific knowledge is the source of all such control, it is an inspir- 

 ing thought for even the humblest worker that there is no 

 knowing how far his results may count and that in any event 

 he is helping the race in its upward climb. When, therefore, 

 we consider how immediately many of our most pressing 

 human questions wait upon the solution of problems in 

 biology and other sciences, the dignity of the investigator's 

 calling assumes the position which has perhaps never been 

 ascribed to it in the minds of most of you, for who can 

 measure the ultimate possibilities of any single fact, patiently, 

 wearily, but finally established? 



