Biological Lectures Delivered at the Marine Biological Laboratory Of

BIOLOGICAL LECTURES DELIVERED AT THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF WOOD'S HOLL IN THE SUMMER SESSION OF 1890 t^tt%^^^ N^^*° BOSTON, U.S.A. PUBLISHED BY GINN & COMPANY I 89 I Copyright, 1890, Bt GINN & COMPANY. All Rights Reserved. Typography by J. S. Gushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A. Presswork by Ginn & Co., Boston, U.S.A. PREFACE. The addresses and lectures contained in this volume, with two exceptions, were delivered at the Marine Bio- logical Laboratory during the summer session of 1890. They are a continuation of the Evening Lectures begun in the previous session. The educational value which such lectures may be pre- sumed to have, and the consideration that through them the aims, the needs, and the possibilities of biological work might, in some measure, be made better known to the public, especially to those whose liberal benefactions have enabled the Laboratory to carry forward its work, suggested the propriety of publication. This step, how- ever, was not decided upon until late in the session of this year, after most of the lectures here presented had been delivered. The preparation of the Mss. for this purpose has been an extra tax upon the time of the contributors ; and, as this was done at my solicitation, I desire to acknowledge here my great obligation to them for this part of their invaluable co-operation in the work of the Laboratory. There are one or two points in the raisojt d'etre of this course of lectures, which do not lie wholly on the surface, but which deserve to be made clear. It was iii IV PREFACE. hoped, through such a course, to bring speciahsts into mutually helpful and stimulating relations with one another, and at the same time to make their work and thought intelligible and useful to beginners. It was not intended to take the place of systematic lectures, such as are given in the regular courses of instruction ; it stands rather for the higher and the more general needs of the science. Its leading purpose, if I may be permitted to define it more with reference to the possibilities of its future development than to its present attainment, was to meet the rapidly growing need of co-operative union among specialists. Specialization has now reached a point where such union appears to be an essential means of progress. Speciali- zation is not science, but merely the method of science. For the sake of greater concentration of effort, we divide the labor ; but this division of the labor leads to interdependence among the laborers, and makes social co-ordination more and more essential. This is the law of progress throughout the social as well as the orgfanic world. An oro^anism travels towards its most perfect state in proportion as its component cell-individuals reach the limit of specialization, and form a whole of mutually dependent parts. Scientific organization obeys the same law. As methods of investiga- tion improve, specialization advances, and at the same time the mutual dependence of specialists increases. Isolation in work becomes more and more unendura- ble. Comparison of results, interchange of views and ideas, and a thousand other advantages of social contact, become of paramount importance to the highest development. PREFACE. V In such considerations may be found the leading motive for this course of lectures. While directed in the main to the higher needs of investigators, they deal, as a rule, with subjects of present, and quite gen- pains eral interest to beginners ; and considerable has been taken to put them in a form that would be readily understood by such readers. In general, it may be said that the authors undertake to set forth what has been accomplished in their special fields of research, to give the conclusions of the best work and thought, to point out general bearings, and to state the problems that await solution. Obviously, such a course of lectures admits of un- limited development. Those here offered may serve to emphasize our need, and perhaps may contribute some- thing towards the eventual realization of that more perfect organization which we look for in the establish- ment of a permanent station with an endowment equal to our great opportunities for marine biological research. C. O. WHITMAN. — CONTENTS. —•<>• LECTURE ^^^^ I. Specialization and Organization, Companion Principles of All Progress. — The Most Important Need of American Biology. C. O. Whitman i II. The Naturalist's Occupation: i. General Survey. 2. A Special Problem. C. O. Whitman .... 27 III. So>ne Problems of Annelid Morphology. E. B. Wilson, 53 IV. The Gastrcza Theory and its Successors. J. P. McMuRRiCH 79 V. Weismann aud Maupas on the Origin of Death. Edward G. Gardiner 107 V\. Evolution and Heredity. Henry Fairfield Osborn, 130 VII. The Relationships of the Sea-Spiders. T.H.Morgan, 142 168 VIII. On Caryokinesis. S. Watase IX. The Ear of Man: its Past, Present, and Euture. Howard Ayers ^^^ X. The Study of Ocean Temperatures and Currefits. William Libbey, Jr 231 vii FIRST LECTURE. SPECIALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION, COMPANION PRINCIPLES OF ALL PROGRESS. THE MOST IMPORTANT NEED OF AMERICAN BIOLOGY. By C. O. whitman. A HEALTHY faith in the progress of biology pre- supposes a correct understanding of the tendency to speciaUze. It is important to know not only that specialization is a necessity, but a necessity that need not be feared. It may sound a little paradoxical to assert, that this tendency means union as well as separation ; but it is only a truth illustrated in the most familiar facts of science and of every-day life. Let us look at some of the broader aspects of this tendency, in order to learn whither it is carrying us and what its implications are. Naturalists are long accustomed to the idea that the living body represents a commonwealth of cells. The metaphor is based, not upon superficial or fanciful re- semblances, but upon analogies that lie at the very foundation of organic and social existence. On the same grounds that the sociologist affirms that a society I 2 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. is an organism, the biologist declares that an organism is a society. A society is an organized whole, the unity of which consists in, and is measured by, the mutual dependence of its members. The living body is an organization of individual cells with the same bond of unity. The principle of organization in both cases is the division of labor or function. The primitive social aggregate •— the undifferentiated germ of society — is composed of practically like units, with like simple needs. Every ore 4,8 a factotum, fulfilling all needs in and for himself. I , ill self-dependence and no mutual dependence. 1 he coherence of the whole is so slight that it can break up into as many parts as there are individuals, without the sacrifice of a single tie or condition essential to existence. In course of time, division of labor comes into play, and with it social organization has its beginning. The different members, instead of doing all sorts of work, and aiming only to supply their own individual wants, begin to limit themselves to such work as their tastes, capacities, surroundings, etc., commend to them. This concentration of effort, which Coleridge, in his theory of life, has defined as "the tendency to individuation," both strengthens and improves the productive power, thus enabling a few to do the work of many. Each class of specializers produce in excess of their own needs, and through the exchange of these surplus products the needs of all are supplied. The social integration that accompanies such division of labor may best be seen under conditions conceived as simple as possible. Let it be assumed that we have ; SPECIALIZATION AND ORGANIZATION. 5 an aggregate of a hundred individuals, equal in compe- tency and capacity for work, and all living under like conditions. Let us assume that the necessities of existence for each member require ten kinds of labor in equal quantities. Now as long as each individual fulfils all ten needs, there will be no division of labor, but rather a divison of energy and correspondingly inferior products. The aggregate will represent a mere chance collection of independent individuals, not a whole of mutually dependent parts. But introduce the division of labor, and see how social integration follows. To take a simple form of division, we will suppose the aggregate divided into ten equal groups, one for each kind of work. We still have the same workers, the same energy expended, the same work accomplished, and the same needs fulfilled ; all we have done is simply to divide the labor instead of the time, and distribute it in such a way that . each person gives his entire time to one work instead of dividing it among ten. The change, in itself considered, looks extremely simple and insignificant but, when measured by the consequences entailed, its importance becomes at once apparent. Each work is now accomplished by ten men instead of a hundred, with the result that each individual fulfils only one-tenth of his own needs, and depends upon his fellows for the rest. Instead of jacks-at-all-trades, we now have specialists working under a social compact, which makes each individual the indispensable servant of every other. The co-ordination of individuals is such as to maintain a complete consensus of functions; which is the funda- mental trait of a perfectly organized community, and 4 MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. its chief distinction from a purely gregarious aggregate. If the members of such a community, in adaptation to the conditions it imposes, should become so far differ- entiated as to lose the power of providing for more than one or two of the ten necessities of existence, the social unity would become as inviolable as the physiological unity of the higher organisms.

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