8 Preface 



itself. But if the young fish can be distorted into all sorts 

 of monstrous shapes by chemical treatment, why may not the 

 monstrosities observed in man, some of which are not neces- 

 sarily fatal, but which entail on their victims sorrow and suf- 

 fering, be due to a similar cause ? And may not the discovery 

 of the cause lead to its control? 



But the primary aim of science is not utilitarianism. Were 

 this so, it would still be wearing rompers instead of seven 

 league boots. It is a commonplace to say that the aim of 

 science is truth, regardless of what practical value such truth 

 may have. But the "man in the street" frequently fails to 

 realize the connection between purpose and accomplishment 

 in science. Perhaps never has this relation been made more 

 clear than in the recent war. The German Government, recog- 

 nizing the value of science for its own sake, encouraged it 

 with every means in its power, and the German university 

 became a Mecca for scientific students throughout the world. 

 England, on the contrary, was more interested in develop- 

 ing good cricketers and diplomatists than in training scien- 

 tists, and when war came upon her ' ' like a thief in the night ' ' 

 she found herself under a well-nigh fatal handicap. 



It was farseeing statesmanship which led President Wilson 

 to call for a council of national defense from the National 

 Academy of Sciences on America's entrance into the war. It 

 would have been still farther sighted had this council been 

 established long years ago. 



American biology, with the lusty vigor of youth, has ad- 

 vanced by leaps and bounds in recent years; and today a 

 wonderful future opens before it. From the days when the 

 early naturalists went hand in hand with the pioneer into the 

 depths of our great forests, crossed the boundless prairie and 

 pierced the trackless labyrinth of mountain peak and canyon, 

 to the present, when the names of American biologists stand 

 throughout the world as synonyms of biological progress, their 

 record is one of which our nation and the world may well be 

 proud. 



It is in the hope of recording, in some small measure, the 

 story of this progress that this book is written. Most of the 

 facts herein recorded have already appeared in the many 

 books dealing with the biological problems of the last few 

 years, but nowhere, so far as I know, has a brief, compre- 

 hensive and simple story of the work of American biologists 

 been told. It is in the hope of presenting such a story that 

 this work has been undertaken. To give a comprehensive as 

 well as simple account of so complex a field as biology is, 

 however, far from easy. A full account of so wide a field 

 would require many volumes, but I shall attempt to touch only 



