PROBLEMS OF MODERN SCIENCE 



True, there were occasional disquieting indica- 

 tions that this delightful condition of complacent 

 finality in science could not be permanent. One 

 of these was the discovery of Rontgen rays in 

 1895, quickly followed by the beginning of the 

 radium work by Becquerel, Rutherford, and 

 others. These discoveries were destined in less 

 than a decade to shake physics to its foundations and 

 open up new vistas in science in all directions, 

 affecting also the biological sciences in many ways. 

 Similarly in biology ; as early as 1894, Bateson, 

 in his Materials for the Study oj Variation^ indicated 

 that perhaps all was not well with the methods then 

 in vogue in the investigation of evolutionary and 

 phylogenetic problems. But the time was not 

 yet ripe for a contribution which would lead not 

 only to the criticism and limitation of the older 

 comparative morphological method as the only 

 available method of research in biology, but also 

 to the adoption and development of the new method 

 of experimental breeding. From our present point 

 of view it is possible to see that both these methods 

 have their advantages and their limitations, while 

 they derive mutual benefit from co-ordination. 



This subject will be pursued farther at a later 

 stage in this paper, but I wish first briefly to survey, 

 as far as time will permit, certain aspects of the 

 progress in botanical research during the last two 

 decades. The development of botanical science 

 152 



