Other Applications 331 



§ II. Other Applications 



A similar state of things, in another of the most interest- 

 ing and important spheres of biological discussion, is illus- 

 trated by the discussion of natural selection and teleology 

 in an earlier connection. It is there argued that the ge- 

 netic point of view may be necessary in the consideration 

 of the series of events by which the individual life is 

 accomplished. There may be a form of teleology, or real- 

 ization of purpose, in the individual's development, and no 

 other sort of explanation than the genetic statement of its 

 modes may be possible. Yet, with it all, when we secure 

 statistical results, we find that they are amenable to state- 

 ment in a law or curve of distribution, which is the same 

 as if they were due in their origin to mechanical distribu- 

 tion, like the running of shot through a sieve. In other 

 words, the cross-section of the results, after they have 

 taken place, is what physics and chemistry might have 

 produced; but that it arises from the acts that it does, 

 could only be found out by genetic description and investi- 

 gation. That it would be capable of the teleological con- 

 struction, or that it is actually brought about by a teleo- 

 logical method, could never be discovered by quantitative 

 science at all. 



So also, to cite still another biological case: the new 

 methods of treating biological variations by statistical for- 

 mulas reach results of value and generality ; yet they must 

 rest upon a sufficient number of cases, all at the same 

 level — all in the same genetic mode — to justify the quan- 

 titative method. The genetic method remains, just the 

 same, the exclusive resort of the historical naturalist, who 

 raises such questions as that of the direction of variations, 



