40 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1385 



fatalism — the sullen acceptance of a situation 

 which is regarded as inevitable. What can a 

 few dreamers do to stem the tide of such 

 powerful biological and social forces as the 

 prevailing spirit of commercialism, the con- 

 centration of present-day manhind in cities, 

 with a resulting dominance of the urban view- 

 point, and particularly the resistless pressure 

 of increasing population everywhere? 



Whether in the future these calamitous 

 tendencies will be voluntarily checked by the 

 intelligent concerted action of mankind, or 

 whether they will be checked automatically by 

 some world-wide catastrophe, need not concern 

 us here. Ultimately some endurable balance 

 will be struck between the human population 

 of our globe and the available amount of food, 

 space-- and other conditions essential to life. 

 For all we know, this unbridled growth of 

 population may be halted before the world is 

 utterly congested, and while there are still 

 large areas in a more or less primitive condi- 

 tion. Does not this last supposition contain 

 enough of probability to warrant its accept- 

 ance as a guiding principle of action? Is it 

 not worth while to reserve from settlement 

 and exploitation extensive tracts of the earth's 

 surface, representing at least the most inter- 

 esting types of fauna and flora and physiog- 

 raphy ? 



We have made a brave beginning in this 

 direction, with our national and state parks, 

 our national forests, national monuments, 

 game refuges and the like, though it must be 

 confessed that these reservations are still con- 

 tinually threatened by predaceous interests 

 and that their jsermanence is not in the least 

 assured.^ But we should carry these efforts 

 vastly further. The areas chosen should be 

 more numerous and more diversified. A 

 greater variety of motives should be given 

 scope in achieving tliese ends. Economic con- 

 siderations, such as the conservation of lum- 

 ber and water-power, should still be recognized 

 as immensely important, as should also the 

 need for public recreation grounds. But 



1 Witness the present federal water-power act 

 (now happily amended), and the recent attempts 

 to raid the Yellowstone. 



purely scientific considerations should like- 

 wise be accepted as l^itimate reasons for 

 reserving tracts from settlement or molesta- 

 tion. 



Work of fundamental importance regarding 

 the phenomena of heredity has been done -in 

 our laboratories, experimental gardens and 

 breeding-pens, and much of this work bears 

 more or less directly upon the problems of 

 organic evolution. But there are many of us 

 who feel that these problems can not be solved 

 without a very intensive study of the products 

 of evolution in nature. To try to arrive at 

 an explanation of the " origin of species " 

 without an adequate analysis of the phe- 

 nomena of geographic variation, and the inter- 

 relationships of our species and subspecies in 

 the wild, seems to some of us utterly bizarre. 



So far, so good, but what can we do about 

 it? This is naturally the hardest question of 

 all to answer. To seek advice on this sub- 

 ject is my main excuse for writing this 

 article. Let me say before going further that 

 I do not make the absurd claim that I or my 

 colleagues on this committee are solitary 

 voices ciying in the wilderness. Many and 

 powerful are the influences already enlisted 

 in supix)rt of one or another movement toward 

 the protection of wild life and of natural 

 scenery. And the concrete results, in terms 

 of actual achievement, would require scores of 

 pages even to outline. Many of these results 

 have become incorporated into our laws and 

 our machinery of government. 



It is my purjKJse here to point out two fun- 

 damental needs: (1) the need of some one or 

 more national organizations whose duty it 

 shall be to coordinate all these activities and 

 impulses, and (2) the need that our scientific 

 men, and particularly our biologists, shall play 

 a far greater part in this movement than tliey 

 have ever done in the past. I shall speak of 

 this second point first. 



Biologists, above all others, should be in a 

 position to appreciate the loss to science which 

 results from the destruction either of single 

 natural species or of natural associations of 

 species. They are in a unique position to 

 give advice as to what particular species and 



