450 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1271 



basis of pure morphology," and says : " H^o 

 biological pbenomenon is adequately inter- 

 preted or dealt with, experimentally, until it 

 has been considered with reference to the place 

 which the organisms to which it pertains hold 

 in the system of classification." That is, no 

 generalization about the reaction of a species 

 to light, or its chromosomal characters for ex- 

 ample, can be accepted as fully valid until 

 compared with the reaction to light or the 

 chromosomal characters of all the other species 

 of the genus, etc. All biologists with exten- 

 sive field experience will have been struck 

 with the " individualness " in many respects 

 of the distribution, behavior and habit of the 

 different species studied. "Each kind of or- 

 ganism has a chemistry to some extent 

 unique," says Professor Hitter. The same ap- 

 pears to be true of its behavior, ecology, phys- 

 iology, distribution. Yet nothing is more 

 common, in the literature of present day biol- 

 ogy, than generalization for the entire animal 

 kingdom (sometimes even including man), on 

 the basis of the experimental study of a single 

 organism, perhaps among the Protozoa, Insecta 

 or Aves! 



Dr. Ritter calls attention to a fact which 

 seems to have been missed by not a few biolo- 

 gists particularly in the fields of cytology and 

 biochemistry, namely, that work in the " an- 

 alysis " or " causal analysis " of organisms, in 

 so far as the work really has an objective 

 basis, is nothing more than a part of the 

 description of the organism. In other words, 

 analysis and explanation are only species of 

 the genus description. " The sooner it is 

 borne in upon the minds of all students of 

 living beings, no matter with what aspects of 

 such beings they may be occupied, that they 

 are engaged in the great task of describing 

 and classifying the living world; and, so far 

 as ' pure biology ' is concerned, are doing 

 nothing else, the sooner will objective biology 

 get itself set off from subjective biology and 

 the sooner will philosophical biology become 

 purged of the many morbific growths which 

 now impair its health and mar its beauty." 



" ISTever more than in the present day," says 

 Professor Ritter, " when experimental research 



has found so wide and lasting, and, on the 

 whole, beneficent a hold in biology has there 

 been need of fidelity to description and classi- 

 fication." The emphasis is not so much on 

 the shortcoming or even the incompleteness 

 of the experimental method as on the great 

 need for researches which shall inform us as 

 to the " normal behavior of normal organisms 

 under normal conditions." 



Probably few would be willing at this stage 

 of scientific development to go all the way 

 with Professor Ritter in his apparently thor- 

 oughgoing skepticism regarding some of the 

 popular biological concepts of the day, e. g., 

 those of the " germ plasm " and the " fit " ; 

 and it is quite certain that his implication 

 of a lack of regard for and appreciation of the 

 orderliness and unity of living nature on the 

 part of the dominant school of biologists of 

 the day is not wholly justified; but the note of 

 warning he soimds as to the tendency " to 

 neglect everything except the one or a very 

 few things which the experimenter must of 

 necessity make the object of each special piece 

 of work " is one which deserves emphasis. 



There are signs of a growing realization on 

 the part of scientific men that recent tenden- 

 cies to minimize the importance of description 

 and classification in biology are unhealthful; 

 and that with this realization is associated a 

 tendency to utilize in greater measure the 

 natural history mode of philosophizing of 

 which Professor Ritter speaks and which he 

 so highly recommends. 



The war has taught scientific men, philoso- 

 phers and people generally, the overwhelming 

 necessity for right thinking about life and 

 living, if we are to avoid additional cataclysms 

 in the future. 



Walter P. Taylor 



BuEEAU OP Biological Survey 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



TO CUT OFF LARGE TUBES OF PYREX GLASS 



On a number of occasions I have heard the 

 remark from instructors in physics and chem- 

 istry, who do most of their own glass blowing, 

 that they are unable to " cut " off squarely 



