An Introduction to a Biology 



one of our leading scientific institutions met. Of the large 

 number of works which it considered, one only was rejected 

 Butler's " Life and Habit." A Monograph of the Fossil 

 BarrabidcB was at once passed with subdued murmurs of 

 respectful applause. As were other works of like nature. 

 " Life and Habit " was not merely rejected : it became the 

 subject of merriment. One of the committee opened it at 

 random and exclaimed, " Listen to this," and read a sentence 

 in which " frog " and " soul " occurred. The suggestion 

 that a frog had a soul provoked roars of laughter. To be 

 acceptable to scientific orthodoxy you must not say that 

 a frog has a soul. If you do you will be greeted with 

 laughter. But if you say that a sea-urchin's egg has a 

 psychont (which is only another word for soul) you will be 

 treated with deference. The future lies with those who 

 prefer the laughter. 



No one denies the extraordinary interest, of the Men- 

 delian discoveries. . . . But we hold that he must be a 

 very rash man who accepts without further question the 

 doctrine of gametic purity. Yet it is just in the sphere of 

 interpretation that the Mendelians are so certain. Once 

 in this sphere, we can no longer be guided by facts if we 

 were dealing with facts we should be in the sphere of dis- 

 covery but by " such things as our mind conceives." And 

 one's attitude should be one of continual, unceasing, and 

 active distrust of oneself. The attitude of the Mendelian 

 is different from this. He may reply that he is triumphant 

 only about his discoveries ; but we must remember that 

 there is no fixed criterion by which we can say where dis- 

 covery ends and interpretation begins ; and we must be 

 careful not to beg the question by defining discovery as that 

 about which there can be no doubt. . . . We think it 

 high time that the spirit which derives satisfaction from 

 the victory of one opinion over another should be swept from 

 science. There is no place for the party system in science ; 



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