No. 575] RESPONSES OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS 



ability to synthesize, the opportunity to use the ability 

 sometimes comes to those who attack the so-called cen- 

 tral problems directly. It comes equally often (we believe 

 more often) to those who have led up to the central prob- 

 lem from some remote viewpoint, frequently condemned 

 by the followers of direct method of attack. Granting 

 the importance of synthesis, if the biologist seeks the 

 solution of such a problem as the germ-plasm problem, 

 he should encourage workers to start at points as remote 

 from the subject as possible, that they may approach it 

 ivith new light and from new angles. 



In judging the work of another, its value should be 

 determined more by the (a) strictness of scientific method 

 used, (b) the thoroughness and completeness of the in- 

 vestigation, and (c) (and perhaps most important of all) 

 evidence of ability to synthesize and combine other re- 

 sults with his own with a view to broader generalization. 

 It must, however, also be recognized that there are many 

 biological problems of much human importance, which 

 must be solved quite independently of the ideal central 

 problems of pure science. 



6. Summary and Conclusions 

 From the data presented above, we note that the doc- 

 trine of purposeful, advantageous response (including 

 anthropomorphic ideas) arose from the uncritical non- 

 experimental study of the responses (structural) of ses- 

 sile and (behavior) motile animals. The idea of the all- 

 sufficiency of natural selection is largely the outcome of 

 observational study of apparently fixed and yet appar- 

 ently adaptive characters of motile highly individuated 

 animals. The doctrine of the continuity of the germ 

 plasm is likewise the outgrowth of the study of highly 

 individuated animals in which the various organs are 

 early differentiated in the dividing egg. No one of the 

 doctrines is wholly tenable ; no one is more than a partial 

 truth. Each appears to have arisen from a recognition 

 of certain more or less unconsciously selected and un- 

 critically interpreted phenomena by each of several men 



