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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 887 



of fungi, or as with an infinitely great 

 sum of fig-ures employed in computations 

 amounting to trillions and quadrillions, all 

 to be canceled save a result expressible in 

 units. And what interesting corollaries 

 might be drawn from such a doctrine, as 

 to the farther independent existence of the 

 selves after the combinations to which they 

 are attached have been dispersed! 



Certainly I do not wish to be understood 

 «,s advocating this second point of view. 

 'The experiences of scientific investigation 

 do not convert one to that thoroughgoing 

 pragmatism which holds that satisfaction 

 to our instincts is ground for holding a 

 proposition to be verifiable. But I take it 

 that the function of a scientific exposition 

 is to follow wherever the argument leads, 

 and when the road forks, with no sign- 

 board to tell us positively which fork to 

 follow, it must chronicle that fact, and in- 

 vestigate so far as it can the regions into 

 which each fork leads, leaving the question 

 of choice to each person as a person. 

 When the man of science leaves the solid 

 ground and takes to his aeroplane, such a 

 rule is doubtless difficult, for all roads 

 become dim, but it still remains the ideal. 



Gentlemen of the society, whether you 

 have followed me in any other respect or 

 not, you will admit the truth of my intro- 

 ductory promise that I would give you a 

 rest from things practical and that I would 

 not try to lead you to any conclusion. 

 Looking at some of the elementary facts 

 of genetics in relation to ourselves, we saw 

 that each of us has been in unbroken ma- 

 terial existence for countless ages, during 

 which time we have taken part in the up- 

 building of many a brute and many a man 

 and many a woman. After speculating a 

 bit as to the marks which these experiences 

 may have left on our characters, we turned 

 our eyes to the future. We found that 



each of us is but a knot in a continuous 

 web of strands that have, in other combina- 

 tions, built up many persons, and will, in 

 still new combinations, build up many 

 others. Thus, as we have before taken 

 part in the development of brute and of 

 man, we may hope later to take part in the 

 development of superman. Finally we 

 looked at the relation of some data pf gen- 

 etics to the problems of personal identity 

 and the self. Here the straight path of 

 science, when followed simply and unsus- 

 pectingly, showed us nature cutting off 

 budding human personalities by the bil- 

 lion, where she brings one to fruition. 

 Whether this ingenuous and unforeseeing 

 pursuit of the scientific path as marked out 

 by the objective data is the only proper 

 method for the establishment of belief on 

 such a point or whether we are justified in 

 turning off at a certain juncture, because 

 this takes us where, for other reasons, we 

 would prefer to go, is a question which 

 leads into broader fields than the experi- 

 mental science of genetics. 



H. S. Jennings 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 

 The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science and the national scientific 

 societies affiliated with it are opening at 

 Washington the tenth convocation week meet- 

 ing as this issue of Science is sent to press. 

 There are published above the presidential 

 addresses of Professor Miohelson before the 

 American Association and of Professor Jen- 

 nings before the American Society of Natural- 

 ists. These will be followed by other addresses 

 and by the proceedings of the meetings. 



Dr. K. Von Goebel, professor of botany at 

 Munich, Dr. Aurel Voss, professor of mathe- 

 matics at Munich, and Dr. Ewald Hering, 

 professor of physiology at Leipzig, have been 

 elected knights of the Bavarian Maximilian 

 order for art and science. 



