PROBLEMS OF MODERN SCIENCE 



We come now to the second of our main 

 categories, Experimental Biology, and here indeed 

 we have a vast field before us. It is often said that 

 Biology is becoming an experimental science, 

 and though this is a comparatively recent develop- 

 ment it has already proved surprisingly fertile in 

 results. Inasmuch as you may experiment in any 

 way with any organism, or even with any part of 

 an organism, it is evident that there is no limit to 

 the subject. One man may spend his entire life 

 in breeding flies and observing the endless permuta- 

 tions and combinations of minute differentiating 

 characters which make their appearance from time 

 to time in his cultures. Another might occupy 

 himself in observing the effects of drugs of all 

 kinds applied to as many animals as he could lay 

 his hands on. In either case, the importance of 

 the results obtained would depend upon their 

 systematisation, and their applicability to the solu- 

 tion of problems of general interest. As in other 

 departments of science, much time and effort 

 may be wasted for want of proper co-ordination 

 amongst the workers and judicious selection of the 

 experiments with a view to the solution of specific 

 problems. Merely haphazard and aimless work 

 is of little value. One might spend a lifetime 

 in measuring and weighing the pebbles on the 

 seashore, but the results attained would hardly 

 deserve to be called scientific, although they might 



