66 THE CONDOR VoL. IX If my purpose in starting off with this sweep is not obvious I will make it so. However little ot' much I may say to you tonight or evcr, I would leave rio doubt in your minds that I stand for the essential uflity of all truth, for the worth-whilehess and dignity of all real kuowledge, for the fundamental interdependence and mutual concern of all sincere endeavor in whatever domain of learning. "Fine, even grand as sentiment," is likely to be exclaimed by almost auy man of science however close-shopped a specialist lie may be. I would convince you, if perchance some among you are unconvinced, that not only is this gocd as sentiment, but that it is good and, in the long run, inevitable in practice as well. From now on we will stick to our text--the worth of ornithology to problems of Evolution. That American Oruithology has reached a higher development than any other department of systematic natural history appears. to be pretty generally admitted among biologists, at least of our own country. I suppose that in some groups of plants and animals, the classificatiou is as refined in certain particulars as is that of birds. But for balanced accuracy in the taxouomy aud out-of-door knowl- edge of a ?vhole class, few would questiou ornithology's claim to first rank. What does this mean froin the standpoint of evolutionary research? Experimentation in the laboratory sense is held by many to be the king-pin of today's biology. Fullness and accuracy in data gathering, criticalness in the use of ternis, and rigor in the testing of guesses and theories is a truer characterization of the scientific spirit of the time. It is not so much the "statistical method" as the mathematical habit that has spread over our science. Not statistics but mathe- matics in whatever way it can get hold is-to be the watch?vord from now on. This imperial science is bound to reign in biology as it does everywhere else. '.' Only in experience is truth," said the greatest of modern philosophers. It is hard for biology, especially evolutionary biology, to take this dictum seriously to heart. But it must. Comprehension of problems and attitudes of mind rather than tools are what we prize. Thru these we are finding experimentation to be one wholly indispensable tool; but the very discovery of the power of the experimental inethod in biology is discovery of the limitation of that method. So too with the statistical method. At the very moment when this proves its indispensability, it proves also its limitatious; it proves its impotency except as it works hand in hand with other methods. So it is and always has been and always must be with all particular methods. Comte and his followers made out a hierarchy of the sciences and assigned to each its distinctive method. 6bmpar/so,, you know. ?vas held to be the characteristic method in biology. The story of Louis Agassiz's criticism of an address at a scientific meeting attended by him soon after his arrival in America, that it was "descriptive but uot comparative," is familiar. The incident marks the beginning of an era in American science, as earlier the comparative method in the hands of Lamarek, Cuvier, Goethe, the Milue-Edwards and others, had made an era in European science. The achieve- ments reached thru comparison as the guiding light, stand forth too magnificently in the history of the last eentury's progress in biology to permit cavil as to its effi- cacy as an instrument. But powerful as it is, who today would think of attributing to it all power? It, too, proved its limitations in proving its indispensability. But while instruments sooner or later reveal their limitations and hence their necessity of being coupled with other instruments, they also prove their dependence on skill and accuracy iu handling. ?ra?O, methods well used is the day's demand. Against this no caveat worth heeding can be filed. Observations have to be made; descriptions have to be written; nomenclatures have to be applied; measurements and enumerations have to be taken; experiments have to be performed; and all must
