February 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



153 



sides Professor Hermes has devoted ten 

 years of his life. It was once a vital ques- 

 tion as to how many angels could dance on 

 the point of a needle. Apart from the ear- 

 mark of material utilitj^, it is not easy to 

 adjust scientific values. "We trust that in 

 religion, in art and in science there is, in ad- 

 dition to the transient, the permanent. But 

 it is a problem, and a difQcultone, for the 

 soldier in the thick of battle to reflect on in- 

 ternational law and constitutional history. 

 The magnitude and the multiplicity of 

 science suggest a problem that has always 

 been emphasized in this society. Each of 

 us is a teacher : 



"And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly teche." 

 I 



But what shall he learn and what teach, 

 what forget and what ignore? Admit- 

 ting the narrow capacity of a single 

 mind, with what shall it be filled? Each 

 with diverse contents, doubtless, if we are 

 to secure the best results. But what shall 

 be the common property of all — what 

 should we learn and teach in school and 

 college? Certainly none here can ignore 

 the doctrines of evolution ; probably none 

 should neglect the fundamental concepts 

 of physical science ; perhaps we should all 

 know how to use a tool as fine as the calcu- 

 lus. But should a large part of the six or 

 eight years of greatest receptivity be given 

 to Latin and Greek ? It is a difficult ques- 

 tion. The classics, in our present civiliza- 

 tion, are a mark of culture that no one likes 

 to be without. But are they the causes of 

 culture, or only its insignia? Are they to 

 be classed with white linen and polished 

 shoes, possibly even with tight lacing and 

 high heels, or do they give us more life and 

 better ? 



Turning now to the problems concerning 

 the content of the biological sciences, I ven- 

 ture to maintain that the science of to- 

 day is either quantitative or genetic. Mod- 

 ern physical science is scarcely older than 



the doctrine of the conservation of energy 

 — 50 years old. Modern biological sci- 

 ence may properly date from 1859. The 

 physical sciences then became quantitative, 

 and the biological sciences then became 

 genetic. Earlier, the sciences were largely 

 engaged in giving things names. The 

 zoologist, the botanist, the psychologist, and 

 even the physicist had the naive faith in 

 names as a method of description of the lit- 

 tle girl who remarked that Adam had given 

 a very appropriate name to the hog. We 

 still, I fancy, have a somewhat exaggerated 

 confidence in laws, theories and animistic 

 personifications, as explanations of the de- 

 velopment of living things. I believe that the 

 great problem now before biological science 

 is to add to its genetic method the quanti- 

 tative method of physical science, and thus 

 apply a kind of description, economical and 

 far-reaching beyond all others. 



Yet, here another problem arises. When 

 we have our quantitative and causal sci- 

 ence, our formula bears about the same 

 relation to the world that it is intended to 

 express as a herbarium does to a primeval 

 forest. Our regard for the body of nature 

 becomes that of the anatomist rather than 

 than that of the lover. How can we re- 

 duce things to an abstract formula without 

 ignoring their concrete and infinite variety ? 

 Fortunately, the subject of this discussion 

 is the biological problems of to-day, not their 

 solution. 



As to the problems peculiar to the psy- 

 chologist, it would be scarcely becoming to 

 bring our family quarrels before the larger 

 public of the biological sciences ; besides, 

 they are too numerous to be even mentioned 

 in the latter part of ten minutes. I do not 

 like the term ' the new psychology.' I pre- 

 fer to maintain that psychology is one of the 

 oldest of the sciences. Still, if modern 

 physics -is only 50 years old, and modern 

 biology only 40 years old, modern psychol- 

 ogy is still younger. I am not as old as I 



