( 443 ) 



BIOLOGICAL SUGGESTIONS. 

 MIMICEY. 



By W. L. Distant. 



(Continued from p. 363.) 



In the following discussion on " Demonstrated," " Suggested 

 or Probable," and other categories of views and suggestions 

 relating to this more than interesting question, recourse has 

 been somewhat plentifully made to original quotations, giving 

 full references to the authors and publication of the same. This 

 course may be probably commended for several reasons. In the 

 present day much biology is written on the historical method,* 

 in which conclusions and facts are worked together in one 

 harmonious whole, and treated as canonical information, to which 

 reference to the original sources of information is unnecessary. 

 But in Biology, surely we should bear in mind — (1) Justice to 

 the original author — A. Reference to the work in which the 

 quotation appears, and which may be unknown or neglected by 

 the reader, who may thus — (a) find other facts besides those 

 quoted ; (b) find that such quotations should be qualified by other 

 information in the same work ; (c) be led to consult the same 

 authorities with reference to other investigations he may have in 

 hand. Besides which, the evidence for or against this theory 

 must be cumulative, and we must not be misled by successful 

 advocacy either one way or the other. 



* This method is not to be despised, as Lord Acton has well observed : 

 — "Method is only the reduplication of common sense, and is best acquired 

 by observing its use by the ablest men in every variety of intellectual 

 employment. Bentham acknowledged that he learnt less from his own pro- 

 fession than from writers like Linnaeus and Cullen ; and Brougham advised 

 the student of Law to begin with Dante. Liebig described his ' Organic 

 Chemistry' as an application of ideas found in Mill's 'Logic,'" &c. ('A 

 Lecture on the Study of History,' p. 53.) 



