SCIENCE 



FRroAY, April 3, 1914 



CO:tiTENTS 

 The Evolutionary Control of Organisms and 

 its Significance: Professok L. B. Walton. 479 



The Mutation Myth: Pkopessoe Edward C. 

 Jepfket 488 



Democracy in University Administration: Pro- 

 fessor J. McKeen Cattell 491 



Calvin Milton Woodward: Professor C. A. 

 Waldo 496 



Eobert Kennedy Duncan: Dr. Raymond P. 

 Bacon 498 



The Wellesley College Fire: Professor Caro- 

 line Burling Thompson 500 



The Presidency of the University of Iowa. . . . 501 

 Scientific Notes and News 502 



University and Educational News 506 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Dadourian's Analytical Mechanics and the 

 Principles of Dynamics: Professor H. M. 

 Dadourian. a New Method of Cooperation 

 among Universities: Chancellor Frank 

 Strong 507 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



From the Letter Files of S. W. Johnson: 

 Professor H. P. Armsby. Base's Be- 

 searches on Irritability in Plants: Pro- 

 fessor Burton Ei. Livingston 509 



Societies and Academies: — 

 The Utah Academy of Sciences: A. O. Gar- 

 rett. Th^ New Orleans Academy of Sci- 

 ence: Professor E. S. Cocks 513 



M8S. inttnded for pablication and books, etc.. intended for 

 review should be sent to Profeuor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison- 

 on-Hodson. K. Y. 



TBE EVOLUTIONABY CONTROL OF ORGAN- 

 ISMS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE! 



A COMPARATIVELY brief period has passed 

 since the evidence brought together by Dar- 

 win in connection with the results slowly- 

 accumulated from other sources has clearly 

 demonstrated that the diversity of organic 

 life in the world occurs through evolution. 

 It is one thing, however, to clearly diagnose 

 a condition and quite another to under- 

 stand the causes which have brought about 

 the phenomenon so that similar results may 

 be produced advantageously. "With the 

 assumption that evolution was merely the 

 survival of those forms which were best 

 adapted to the environment, generation 

 after generation, the explanation of the 

 method as well as its practical application, 

 namely the improvement of organisms in 

 any given direction, was apparently a sim- 

 ple matter. It seemed evident that man 

 had modified and adapted to his welfare 

 various plants and animals by a more or 

 less unconscious and haphazard selection 

 long before history records civilization.- 

 Why then could not civilized man carry 

 forward the work and with the knowledge 

 gained since the principles of evolution 

 were recognized, obtain far-reaching results 

 within a brief period of time. AU that 

 seemed necessary was to have individuals 



1 Presidential address before the twenty-third 

 annual meeting of the Ohio Academy of Science, 

 Oberlin, O., November 28, 1913. 



2 One need not be a pessimist to assert the ac- 

 tual evidence thus far obtained indicates that the 

 supposed progress made in the improvement of 

 domesticated animals and plants is nothing more 

 than the sorting out of pure lines and thus repre- 

 sents no advancement. 



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