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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VII. No. 1215 



He then dwells upon the powers of observa- 

 tion and imagination of the biologist, and 

 the unique place which biology occupies 

 among all the sciences in its cultivation of 

 esthetic appreciation and broad sympathies. 

 He admits that tliese elements of personal 

 culture are not absolutely distinctive of 

 the biologist, and that "some good men in 

 other fields are biologists gone astray." 



Among the contributions of biology to 

 civilization, he refers to the conquest of na- 

 ture by all of the sciences, and suggests as 

 a topic for general debate at the San Fran- 

 cisco meeting of the association, "Who built 

 the Panama Canal?" feeling sure that 

 biology would be able to show that it de- 

 served "a large share of the credit." 

 Without entering into detail, he states that, 

 while biology is not generally considered 

 the equal of physics, chemistry or engineer- 

 ing in its contribution to civilization, agri- 

 culture, animal breeding, bacteriology, ex- 

 perimental medicine, pathology, parasitol- 

 ogy, physiology, sanitation, are all based on 

 biological research. 



It is the summary way in which Pro- 

 fessor Conklin dismisses this aspect which, 

 I think, weakens the effect of his address, 

 for he goes on in his final consideration to 

 the statement that "the highest service of 

 science [mind you, science in general] to 

 culture has been in the emancipation of the 

 mind, in freeing men from the bondage of 

 superstition and ignorance, in helping man 

 to know himself. " As a generalization this 

 is fine, and he goes on to state that the doc- 

 trine of evolution which has revolutionized 

 all our thinking regarding man and nature 

 is the greatest contribution of biology to in- 

 tellectual emancipation. His concluding 

 paragraph is : 



Biology has changed our whole point of view as 

 to nature and man, and has thus contributed more 

 than any other science to the emancipation of 

 mankind. 



Another of these four papers was read by 

 Professor G. H. Parker, of Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and was entitled "The Value of 

 Zoology to Humanity : The Eugenics Move- 

 ment as a Public Service." Here again we 

 have an extremely interesting and import- 

 ant article, from which we may quote the 

 conclusion only : 



To conclude, eugenics in the service of society is, 

 in my opinion, entirely justified in demanding the 

 sterilization by humane methods of those defec- 

 tives who are in the nature of public wards, and 

 this practise may be extended as experience dic- 

 tates. Eugenics in its relation to propagating the 

 best in the community has a fundamental position 

 in that it is concerned through the elimination of 

 the extremely unfit with the delivery of a reason- 

 ably sound stock for cultivation, but it is only 

 secondarily connected with the final production of 

 eflScient members of society whose real effectiveness 

 is often more a matter of social inheritance than 

 it is of organic inheritance. 



I consider Dr. Parker's address as a very 

 valuable one, but, while showing what ani- 

 mal breeding has done, which may in a way 

 be construed as relating to "the value of 

 zoology to humanity," he uses this only as 

 an indication as to what might be done with 

 the human species; and, important as his 

 address is, it is not directed specifically to 

 the point at issue — the value of zoology to 

 humanity. 



The third of these addresses was by Dr. 

 C. B. Davenport and was entitled "The 

 Value of Zoology to Humanity: the Value 

 of Scientific Genealogy." Here again we 

 have a very important paper, written in Dr. 

 Davenport's admirable manner. His argu- 

 ment in a broad way applies to the general 

 field of biology, including botany, zoology 

 and anthropology, and in a specific way to 

 the human species. He refers to the com- 

 plicated work of the animal breeders, and 

 follows it with the statement, 



And yet this precious human kind of ours, whose 

 progress is so fatal to the world, goes its blind 

 way, like any jellyfish, mates almost at random and 



