24 BIOLOGY 



dium into helium, the theory of radiation pressure, what have we 

 in biology that could be compared with such a series of discoveries? 

 But I believe that biology has important discoveries in store, and that 

 there is no intrinsic reason why it should be less fertile than physics 

 and chemistry. I think the difference in the fertility of biology and 

 the physical sciences is at least partly due to the present organization 

 of the biological sciences. 



General or experimental biology should be represented in our 

 universities by special chairs and laboratories. It should be the task 

 of this science to analyze and control those phenomena which are 

 specifically characteristic of living organisms, namely, development, 

 self-preservation, and reproduction. The methods of general biology 

 must be those of chemistry, and especially those of physical chemistry. 

 To-day general or experimental biology is represented in our univer- 

 sities neither by chairs nor by laboratories. We have laboratories 

 for physiology, but to show how little interest physiologists take in 

 general biology I may mention the fact that the editor of a physio- 

 logical annual review excludes papers on development and fertili- 

 zation from his report, as, in his opinion, this belongs to anatomy. 

 On the other hand, anatomists and zoologists must give their full 

 energy to their morphological investigations, and have, as a rule, 

 neither the time for experimental work, nor very often the training 

 necessary for that kind of work. Only the botanists have kept up 

 their interest in general biology, but they of course pay no attention 

 to animal biology. In working out this short review of the develop- 

 ment of biology during the last century, I have been impressed with 

 the necessity of our making better provisions for that side of biology 

 where, in my opinion, the chances for the great discoveries seem to 

 lie, namely, general or experimental biology. 



