SOME ASPECTS OF PROGRESS IX MODERN ZOOLOGY; 



By Edmund P.. Wilson, 

 Colum bin Un ircrsitij. 



It is our privilege to live in a time of almost unexampled progress 

 in natural science, a time distinguished alike by discoveries of the 

 first magnitude and by far-reaching changes in method and in point 

 of view. The advances of recent years have revolutionized our con- 

 ceptions of the structure of matter and have seriously raised the ques- 

 tion of the transmutation of the chemical elements. They have con- 

 tinually extended the proofs of organic evolution but have at the 

 same time opened wide the door to a reexamination of its conditions, 

 its causes, and its essential nature. Such has been the swiftness of 

 these advances that some effort is still required to realize what re- 

 markable new horizons of discovery they have brought into A^iew. 

 A few years ago the possibility of investigating by direct experi- 

 ment the internal structure of atoms, or the topographical grouping 

 of hereditary units in the germ cells, would have seemed a wild 

 dream. To-day these questions stand among the substantial reali- 

 ties of scientific inquiry. And lest we should lose our heads amid 

 advances so sweeping, the principles that guide scientific research 

 have been subjected as never before to critical examination. We 

 have become more circumspect in our attitude toward natural " laws." 

 We have attained to a clearer view of our woi'king hypotheses — of 

 their uses and their limitations. With the best of intentions we do 

 not always succeed in keeping them clear of metaphysics, but at least 

 we have learned to try. We perceive more and more clearly that 

 science does not deal with ultimate problems or with final solutions. 

 In order to live science must move. She attempts no more than to 

 win successive points of vantage which may serve, one after another, 

 as stepping stones to further progress. When these have played their 

 part they are often left behind as the general advance proceeds. 



In respect to the practical applications of science we have almost 

 ceased to wonder at incredible prodigies of achievement, yet in some 



1 Address of the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Philadelphia, Dec. 28, 1914. Printed by permission of author. 



395 



