An Introduction to a Biology 



the effect of interpretation upon description; be- 

 cause the young investigator soon comes to have 

 views of his own, and rebels against his master. 

 The effect becomes dangerous when it is one's own 

 unconsciously entertained interpretations, which, un- 

 known to us, hold our hand and direct the pencil 

 which we fondly believe to be carrying out the 

 pure, unadulterated work of description. 



Instances of the way in which the work of descrip- 

 tion, which is the recording of observation, can be 

 distorted by preconceived interpretation will crowd 

 up into the mind of the reader. So great an observer 

 alTBufTon, who was an upholder of the doctrine of 

 evolutio, according to which the adult animal existed 

 in miniature, but complete in every detail, in the 

 egg, said, " I have opened a great many eggs at 

 different times, both before and after incubation, 

 and I have convinced myself by actual observation 

 that the chicken exists, in its entirety, in the middle 

 of the spot on the yolk, at the moment that the 

 egg leaves the body of the hen." 



The improvement of scientific instruments since 

 Buffon's day has doubtless reduced the margin of 

 error, but it has not prevented that which has been 

 seen by means of these improved instruments from 

 bearing a strange resemblance to that which the 

 interpretation already in the mind of many a con- 

 temporary observer made him expect to see. 



We have seen the manner in which description 

 may be affected by interpretation. We may now 

 glance at the way in which interpretation may be 

 affected by description. 



The reason that the investigator has so little 



