70 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 732 



respect to exact statistical research. Both 

 these methods are indispensable. But it is 

 well to remember that the sex problem was 

 first attacked by such methods, and that 

 they long gave inconclusive or wholly mis- 

 leading results. The most fruitful sugges- 

 tions for its solution were first given by 

 morphological studies, in which minute cy- 

 tological research has latterly played an 

 important part, while the newer experi- 

 mental work is bringing complete demon- 

 stration to these suggestions. It would be 

 hard to find a better illustration of the 

 futility of placing exclusive trust in any 

 single method for the solution of any com- 

 plex biological problem. If a definitive 

 solution is to be attained it will be a result 

 of the alliance between observation and 

 experiment, between morphology and physi- 

 ology, which is fortunately becoming the 

 distinctive feature of modern zoology and 

 botany. Edmund B. Wilson 



Columbia Univeesity 



PROFESSOR ALFRED GIARD (1846-190S) 

 Science in Fiance has suffered an untimely 

 loss in the death of Professor Giard. He was 

 stricken suddenly (d. August 8) while in the 

 height of his activities, relatively young, keen 

 in his interest in new biological tendencies. 

 His influence had long been felt in the ad- 

 vancement of science; and his absence will be 

 regretted not alone in his native country. He 

 was one of the foremost naturalists of his day, 

 a man of vast erudition, and of original views. 

 His bent for natural history showed itself 

 from his earliest youth. As a child of six 

 he was already a passionate observer of nature, 

 helped and encouraged by his father, who 

 found the time to scour with him the sur- 

 rounding country, the streams, the woods, the 

 moats of the fortifications of Valenciennes, 

 his native town; in this way he began to lay 

 up a store of valuable information by per- 

 sonal experience, and to acquire the veritable 

 instruction and education which he himself 

 recommends in an article, charming and pro- 



found, published a few days before his death.' 

 As attentive in reading and assimilating the 

 writings of his predecessors as in observing all 

 that took place around him, he early acquired 

 a ripeness of judgment and a knowledge of 

 facts noticeable in his very first writings, and 

 particularly striking in his thesis for the de- 

 gree of doctor.^ 



Appointed professor of natural history in 

 Lille in 1873, Alfred Giard rapidly organized 

 a zoological center and trained many remark- 

 able naturalists, among others Charles, Jules 

 and Theodore Barrois, P. Hallez, P. Pelseneer, 

 L. Dollo. His profound knowledge of botany, 

 as well as zoology, enabled him to teach both 

 subjects with equal success. An enthusiastic 

 convert to transformism, he introduced this 

 doctrine into France by his teachings and 

 writings, in spite of the most active opposition. 



In 1874 he founded at Wimereux, near 

 Boulogne (Pas-de-Calais), a zoological marine 

 station ; it was a tiny building with but scanty 

 accommodation for the numerous and busy 

 workers who rapidly assembled there, but it 

 was destined to accomplish much useful work, 

 as will be seen by its output — ^the Bulletin 

 Scientifique de la France et de la Belgique, 

 has now its forty-second volume in press, and 

 there are eight volumes in quarto of Travaux 

 de la Station Zoologique de Wimereux. 

 There he passed his holidays living among his 

 pupils in the most informal way, exploring 

 with them the shore at low tide, the sand-hills 

 surrounding the laboratory, the woods and 

 highways farther afield, amazing aU by the 

 extreme variety of his knowledge and his 

 wide-spread erudition, and opening to their 

 eager eyes many unsuspected biological asso- 

 ciations. It is only to be deplored that 

 Giard's results on the fauna and flora of the 

 region of the Boulogne, studies which ex- 

 tended over a period of twenty-four years, 

 remain impublished. At the time of his death 

 he was gathering together his voluminous 



> " Education du Morpliologiste," Revue du 

 Mois, 10 Juillet, 1908. 



^ " Eeeherclies sur les Ascidies composes ou 

 Synascidies," Archives de Zoologie Exp^rimentale, 

 t. I., 1872. 



