MISSING FACTOR IN CURRENT THEORIES 41 



Is the biological basis sound ? Have we not at 

 least exaggerated its significance ? The biologist 

 will judge. Though no doubt the function of Re- 

 production is intimately connected in Physiology 

 with the function of Nutrition, the facts as stated 

 here are facts of Nature; and some glimpse of the 

 influence of this second factor will be given in the 

 sequel from which even the non-biological reader 

 may draw his own conclusions. Difficult as it 

 seems to account for the ignoring of an elemental 

 fact in framing the doctrine of Evolution, there are 

 circumstances which make the omission less un- 

 intelligible. Foremost, of course, there stands the 

 overpowering influence of Mr. Darwin. In spite of 

 the fact that he warned his followers against it, 

 this largely prejudged the issue. Next is to be 

 considered the narrowing, one had almost said the 

 blighting, effect of specialism. Necessary to the 

 progress of science, the first era of a reign of 

 specialism is disastrous to philosophy. The men 

 who in field and laboratory are working out the 

 facts, do not speculate at all. Content with slowly 

 building up the sum of actual knowledge in some 

 neglected and restricted province, they are too ab- 

 sorbed to notice even what the workers in the other 

 provinces are about. Thus it happens that while 

 there are many scientific men, there are few scientific 



