364 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 636 



istry and that even now the group of 

 'organic chemists' is dying out. The newer 

 problems of physical chemistry know not 

 the old boundaries. The sole unit of classi- 

 fication of workers is the problem or sub- 

 ject. 



So might it be in biology. The whole 

 realm of living matter is one and indi- 

 visible. The fundamental laws of action 

 of protoplasm, no matter how diverse its 

 form, are everywhere the same. A com- 

 parative study of these laws on all sorts of 

 material is necessary in order that the pri- 

 mary and essential may be separated from 

 the secondary and non-essential. For ex- 

 ample, the cell-wall was long regarded by 

 botanists as the essential part of the cell, 

 until studies on animal tissues showed that 

 it had a secondary significance and that 

 nucleus and cytoplasm are of more general 

 importance. No student of plant physiol- 

 ogy can fail to recognize how much modern 

 concepts in that science have been influ- 

 enced by studies on animals and even on 

 man, while, on the other hand, the young 

 science of general physiology of animals 

 has received its true direction and impetus 

 from studies on plants. In still other sub- 

 jects we must recognize the identity of 

 phenomena in the two kingdoms— little 

 longer to be kingdoms, I trust, but soon 

 united states. In both, processes of cell- 

 division are essentially alike. Maturation, 

 fertilization and cleavage of the egg differ 

 only in illuminating secondary details ; the 

 general embryological principles are the 

 same; the form is similarly restored after 

 injury. Not less strikingly alike are the 

 laws of fluctuating variability — since the 

 delicate test of statistics shows no essential 

 difference in the variation surfaces of 

 plants and animals. As for mutation and 

 inheritance, the warnings of some zoologists 

 that the recent discoveries in plants should 

 not be hastily applied to animals have 

 fallen on deaf ears, for the fact is start- 



lingly manifest that in all organisms these 

 functions are identical. Even as producers 

 of obscure diseases, plants can claim no 

 distinction from animals. Within the last 

 few years the number of disease-producing 

 Protista that have animal affinities has in- 

 creased by leaps and bounds until the very 

 name of bacteriology threatens to become 

 extinct. Pathogenic micro-organisms, with- 

 out regard to their situation in the ' realms, ' 

 now constitute the material of the former 

 bacteriologist. Prom all sides come force- 

 ful facts, beating down the artificial barrier 

 that systematists and anatomists have erect- 

 ed athwart the field of biology. 



This barrier must go. Already there 

 are comparative cytologists, students of 

 growth and regeneration, biometricians, 

 thermatologists and protistologists who 

 have destroyed much of it. General phys- 

 iologies are written that disregard the old 

 boundaries. Societies are being founded 

 which, like the American Breeders' Asso- 

 ciation and the Deutsches Gesellschaft fiir 

 Ziichtungskunde, ignore the conventional 

 dividing lines. Botanists and zoologists 

 have gladly cooperated in these under- 

 takings, having forgotten all minor differ- 

 ences in the essential fact of being biolo- 

 gists. The International Conference of 

 Plant Breeders, held last summer, had for 

 its president a noted zoologist. 



Colleagues, there are many biological 

 matters which call for immediate coopera- 

 tion. There is the matter of the regulation 

 of changes in the nomenclature of our some 

 half million of species. This nomenclature 

 is a cooperative work of the first magni- 

 tude, but is there any other instance of so 

 large a cooperative undertaking with so 

 little central control? This nomenclature 

 is made up of the decisions of an army of 

 men and women of the most varied learn- 

 ing, judgment and experience. To qualify 

 for the work of adding to or altering this 

 nomenclature no notice is given, no exam- 



