Sbptembee 26, ]9U->.] 



SCIENCE. 



505 



cumulative in effects, expressing themselves 

 in development, growth, life-histories, spe- 

 cies, habits, instincts, intelligence. These 

 problems require, therefore, to be taken to 

 the field, the pond, the sea, the island, 

 where the forms selected for study can be 

 iept under natural conditions, and where 

 the work can be continued from year to 

 year without interruption. Such a field, 

 combining land and water, and stocked 

 with animals and plants, and provided with 

 a staff of naturalists, would have the essen- 

 tials of a biological farm, now justly con- 

 sidered to be one of the greatest desiderata 

 of biology. 



This great need (pointed out in all our 

 annual programs since 1892, and named 

 as one of the three leading purposes of the 

 Culver endowment) has been felt ever since 

 Darwin's time, and has been strongly urged 

 by such evolutionists as Romanes, Varigny, 

 Galton, Weismann and Meldola. Thus far 

 the project has not been realized, except on 

 a small scale through individual effort. 



The most notable move in this direction 

 is that of Professor Cossar Ewart, of the 

 University of Edinburgh. 'The Penyeuik 

 Experiments'— the first product of Pro- 

 fessor Ewart 's enterprise— form a brilliant 

 illustration of the kind of fruit to be ex- 

 pected from a farm devoted to experi- 

 mental research. Single-handed, Professor. 

 Ewart attacks the problems of heredity, 

 and quickly shows how decisive are direct 

 experiments in dealing with such subjects 

 as telegony, prepotency, reversion, inbreed- 

 ing, etc. 



The plans proposed by Romanes and 

 Varigny had as chief ends in view demon- 

 strative tests of the theory of the origin of 

 species by natural selection. But the eon- 

 test between the old belief in the immuta- 

 bility of species and the new doctrine of 

 descent has been decided, and the original 

 idea of the farm has consequently ceased 

 to have great influence. 



The functions to be fulfilled by a farm 

 are no longer prescribed by the exigencies 

 of theories, but by the deeper and broader 

 needs of pure research on lwi7ig organisms. 

 The problems of heredity and variability 

 are fundamental, and naturally form the 

 center of interest. Variability is the source 

 of new species and the fountain of all 

 progressive development in the organic 

 world. In heredity lies the power of prop- 

 agation and continuity of species. These 

 are inexhaustible subjects, from the inves- 

 tigation of which must flow rich accessions 

 to knowledge, which will redound to the 

 advancement of human welfare. 



These subjects are in some aspects and 

 details amenable to laboratory research ; 

 but for the most part they can only be 

 effectively dealt with under conditions rep- 

 resented in the farm. This holds, for ex- 

 ample, in that most promising branch of 

 experimental biology — hybridisation. Bo- 

 tanical gardens and zoological parks have 

 been utilized to some extent in this work, 

 but they are adapted to show-purposes, 

 and are of little value for research of this 

 kind. The far-reaching importance of 

 this subject, for both science and practical 

 breeding purposes, is well attested' in Mr. 

 Ewart 's experiments, in those of Hugo de 

 Vries, as recorded in his monographs on 

 the origin of species in the plant world, 

 and again in Mr. Bateson's 'Experimental 

 Studies in the Physiology of Heredity.' 



The functions of a biological farm are 

 not all summed up in experimentation. 

 That old and true method of natural his- 

 tory — observation — must ever have a large 

 share in the study of living things. Obser- 

 vation, experiment and reflection are three 

 in one. Together they are omnipotent; 

 disjoined they become impotent fetiches. 

 The biology of to-day, as we are beginning 

 to realize, has not too much laboratory, 

 but too little of living nature. The farm 

 will certainly do much to mend this great 



