November 29. 1894] 



NATURE 



10- 



produce evidence confirming this last statement. I admit that 

 carefully studied and conclusive instances are not very numerous, 

 but I refer to such cases as the non-transmission [a) of plus or 

 minus variation in pigment produced in individuals by greater 

 or less exposure to sunlight ; (/') the effects of dry or moist 

 climate on individual plants ; [c) the effects of change of diet on 

 individual animals ; (</) the effects of increased use of muscles in 

 men and animals. 



It seems that we are driven to the conclusion that the causes 

 which have been active in producing changes the accumulation 

 of which amounts to specific, generic and larger differences, 

 must be causes which are able to act upon the potential con- 

 genital quality of the individual, and that there is no reason for 

 associating the somewhat superficial and late responses or 

 reactions of the parts of a growing individual lo normal or 

 abnormal forces of its environment with that more subtle and 

 profound disturbance, which is permanent and affects the 

 potential character of the germ, and mote or less of all the germs 

 derived from it. 



At any rate this is the absolutely unanimous testimony of all 

 those observers, in all countries and in all ages, who have been 

 practically concerned (often with vast pecuniary interests at 

 stake) in the production of relatively permanent new races of 

 animals and plants. Breeders of horses, cattle, sheep and 

 dogs, pigeon and poultiy-fanciers, crop growers, nurserymen, 

 tulipomaniacs, and the like, have never in any single instance 

 put the Lamarckian principle into practice. On th.; contrary, 

 they laugh it to scorn. Not one of them ever produced a new 

 race by moulding the parents. But, on the other hand, they do 

 subject (he selected parents to novel and disturbing con- 

 ditions, to which the changed characters of the offspring (not of 

 the parents) have no "responsive" relation; they cross-breed 

 here and cross-breed theie, until the "specific potential" is 

 broken-down, and strange unlooked for varieties are born and 

 grow up irrespective of normal or abnormal environmeni. 

 From these congenital variations they select desired forms, and 

 perpetuate them with perfect assurance and security. 



For the present I see no evidence of a production of new 

 races on the face of the earth, excepting by the method adopted 

 by these men, viz. by the selection of congenital variations ; 

 such congenital variations being produced as the result of (but 

 without any direct adaptational relation to) a disturbance of 

 the material of the reproductive particles of both sexes ; that 

 disturbance being increased, if not determined, by changed 

 environment of the parental organisms or the coupling of remote 

 strains. E. PIay Lankester. 



Oxford, November 17. 



The Present State of Physiological Research. 



The extracts given in N.a.ture of November 15, from an article 

 by Prof Max Verworn, of Jena, on " Modern Physiology," will 

 serve to draw the attention of biologists to the reawakening of 

 interest which is now evinced by many physiologists in regard 

 to the fundamental phenomena exhibited by living things. As 

 the opinion of physiologists is expressly invited in reference to 

 the questions raised in this article, I venture to express my own 

 as being in the main the same as that of Prof. Verworn. 



It seems to me an obvious truism to say that the methods 

 which can ensure a real advance in general biological knowledge 

 must be those in which comparative physiology takes the lead. 

 In my recent presidental address to the Liverpool Biological 

 Society I urged the establishment of laboratories for the 

 systematic study of the comparative physiology of the simpler 

 organisms, the end in view not being the elucidation of the 

 functions of organs '«\\.\\&narrure pais^t as to their relation to 

 man, but the examination of the activities for their own sake, 

 since this inquiry forms the only means of approaching the 

 mystery which enshrouds the essence of living existence. 



The determination of the reactions of simple organisms to 

 physical changes (stimuli), and the grouping of such resultant 

 effects carried out systematically, form a line of physiological 

 inquiry of transcendent importance, both because of its large 

 scope and fundamental character, and because it opens the way 

 towards the partial elucidation of the physiologist's real pro- 

 blem. This problem is the one involved in the question, to 

 what extent all living phenomena are to be regarded as reac- 

 tion phenomena ? Are we, on the other hand, compelled to 

 postulate the existence in every living thing of a ./«« ex machimi 



which can, if it will, act independently of every physical 

 stimulus, a so-called " vital force " \ 



Prof. Verworn is right in forcing upon the attention of 

 physiologists the paramount necessity for work of this kind. I 

 venture, however, to point out that he has not done justice to 

 the judgment of his contemporary physiologists if, as I imagine, 

 he has been led to infer from the character of the mass of 

 current physiological work, that they do not realise the import- 

 ance of such comparative physiology. But to realise the 

 importance of an inquiry and to be able to carry that inquiry 

 into effect, are unfortunately by no means identical positions. 



There are undoubted obstacles to the latter, however ardently 

 we may desire its fulfilment. 



In the first place physiology is, in this country, more or less 

 shackled by its position. It owes everything to medicine. Its 

 laboratories are adjuncts to medical schools, its professors must 

 take their share in the teaching in such schools, and this teach- 

 ing is essentially connected with human physiology. 



The debt, which as physiologists we owe to medicine, is one 

 which we gratefully acknowledge, but even with the thanks on 

 our lips we may be supremely conscious of the chains which 

 still hang on and impede the debtor. It is this close relation- 

 ship which, in my opinion, has served to accentuate the separa- 

 tion between physiology and the science of which it properly 

 forms part, biology ; a separation which is now almost a 

 judicial one, and if unchecked may become an actual divorce. 

 It is rare to fine a physiologist who has been highly trained in 

 zoological investigation, and rarer still to find a zoologist who 

 has attempted to perfect himself in the methods used in physio- 

 logical laboratories. Vet the appropriate blend is essential for 

 the advent of those comparative physiologists who alone can 

 do full justice to the systematic inquiry now advocated. 



Another difficulty in this country is undoubtedly due to the 

 scanty pecuniary help afforded to scientific work which is 

 neither technical nor directly concerned with what is regarded 

 as the public good. Physiology, to-day, is maintained in Great 

 Britain solely because it forms an essential part of a specialised 

 technical education, that of the medical student ; it is not 

 maintained in order to inquire into the mystery of living things 

 as such 



In order to adequately develop such an inquiry as this, it 

 would be necessary to have a new department furnished with 

 the equipment of both a zoological and a physiological labora- 

 tory, and with skilled workers who have leisure to prosecute 

 their investigations. Since this means money, its full establish- 

 ment may have to be postponed until that pious benefactor 

 appears whose dawn even a Bodleian librarian has now anxiously 

 to await. 



Finally, I do not think the outlook is so discouraging as Prof. 

 Verworn seems to believe, nor that " we are making no progress 

 in physiology." 



He admits that during the last twenty years we have attained 

 to a precision in our experimental methods such as excites the 

 astonishment of the uninitiated ; and surely the mastery of 

 method is the first step, and that an invaluable one, towards its 

 future more fruitful employment. I do not imagine that even 

 the systematic physiological investigation which he advocates, 

 will involve the employment of new methods to the exclusion 

 of old ones ; it is the material which will be novel, not the 

 entire experimental technique. Isolated instances of the 

 application to simple excitable organism^, of .such physiological 

 methods as have been employed in ekaborate detail for the inves- 

 tigation of muscle, nerve, &c. , are well known to us all, and to 

 no one better than Prof. Verworn ; the real desideratum is^ 

 surely that the instances should be no longer isolated, but form 

 part of a broad systematic inquiry. FrAiN'CIS Gotch. 



University College, Liverpool, 

 November 17. 



Wilde's Theory of the Secular Variation of Terrestrial 

 Magnetism. 



Mr. Wilde's reply in Nature of October 11 to my letter 

 of criticism in the same of August 9, with respect to his com- 

 munication to the Royal Society, contained in the Proceeditigi 

 for .March 1S94, has just come to my attention. 



As the letter consists entirely in an attempt to show 

 the inaccuracy and unreliability of my statements with re- 

 spect to the inclination-observations made at St. Helena, 



NO. 1309, VOL. 51] 



