1691 IDEA OF AN INSTITUT TRANSFOBMISTE 285 



to afford facilities which at present do not exist for 

 observing the modifications produced in animals and 

 plants by subjecting them during long periods and in 

 successive generations to suitable external conditions, 

 and for testing the transmissibility of the modifications 

 so produced. He was anxious that such an Institution 

 should be founded in connection with one of the Uni- 

 versities, and with this view, circulated the following 

 memorandum. As yet the idea has come to nothing, 

 but possibly the project may one day be revived. 



1 AN INSTITUT TEANSFOKMISTE.' 



In an English translation of a lecture which was 

 recently delivered by M. Giard, as Professor of Evo- 

 lutionary Biology in France, there occurs the following 

 passage : 



1 If evolutionists must content themselves in most 

 cases with experiments carried on in nature, or those 

 of breeders, instead of applying themselves to verifica- 

 tions made with all the rigour of modern scientific 

 precision, is it not because of the deplorable insuf- 

 ficiency of our laboratories ? It is astonishing that 

 in no country, not even where science is held in 

 greatest honour, does there yet exist an Listitut 

 transformiste devoted to the long and costly experi- 

 ments now indispensable for the progress of evolu- 

 tionary biology.' 



That an institution of the kind in question would 

 tend to promote the solution of problems in ' evolu- 

 tionary biology,' it seems needless to argue. Many 

 of the most desirable experiments in heredity and 

 variation, for example, require such prolonged time 



