The Higher Usefulness of Science 



of evidence of like purport clearly to be counted as 

 chemical, though not usually so cited, namely, that of 

 the odors and flavors of plants and animals. This is 

 an exceedingly rich field of inquiry, even though diffi- 

 cult of cultivation by ordinary laboratory methods. 

 The methods to be chiefly relied upon here are those 

 of the senses of smell and taste, and it is interesting 

 to reflect that there is available for utilization not 

 merely these senses in man, but in animals as well. 

 In the olfactory sense of the ant and the scent hunting 

 dog, for example, we have a method of chemical dis- 

 crimination of qualitative chemical analysis if you 

 please which seems to surpass in delicacy anything 

 laboratory manipulation can hope to attain. 



Natural history and biochemistry are being inevita- 

 bly drawn together by the very nature of their subject 

 matter. Descriptive zoology and botany are becoming 

 chemical in part, and biochemistry is becoming zoolog- 

 ical and botanical in part. Organisms are indeed being 

 "reduced to chemistry" in the familiar phrase ; but the 

 statement tells only half the story, unless it specifies 

 the particular chemistry to which they are reduced. 

 Each kind of organism has a chemistry to some extent 

 unique. In one of its aspects biochemistry is becoming 

 a subdivision, or branch, of systematic zoology and 

 botany, just as anatomy has been for a long time. 

 "Almost any group of tissues," said Minot, "would 

 offer a favorable opportunity for the discussion of 

 genetic classification." Apparently the same may be 



