The determination of the zones of greatest productivity for different crops, their soil requirements, the introduction and acclimatization of species belonging to other faunal or floral regions, the essentials of animal and plant nutrition, the control of disease or abatement of noxious forms of plant or animal, all these and more are embraced in the service of biologic science to agriculture in its various forms and thus to human interests.
Among special cases cited, but which cannot be printed here in detail, were various plant diseases, and particularly various insect pests, and the discoveries which have brought them more or less under control.
Aside from the sources of food supply, which come under the general term of agriculture, we derive many articles of diet from sources dependent on animal or plant life. The various fishery industries and oyster culture which have been so wonderfully promoted by biological investigations are excellent examples of the service of science to mankind. Game laws for the protection of certain forms of life of utility to man and the possible sources of food from various animals or plants not yet utilized may be mentioned here. Clothing comes in for its share, as in the methods for protection of silkworms, the saving of fur seals and other fur-bearing animals from extinction, and the use of various fibre plants. The successful growth of sponges, of pearls and many other articles of domestic comfort or ornament are connected in one way or another with biological problems, and their fullest development dependent on rational measures possible when the biological conditions are known.
In another way these questions enter into our social and commercial life. The rights of property in the migrant or semi-migrant forms of life have biologic as well as legal basis and some quite peculiar legal decisions would doubtless have been very different had the biology been appreciated. The classification of turtles as ‘vermin’ since they are neither fish nor fowl may be given as a case in point. Equally absurd and sometimes more disastrous are some of the rulings by customs officers whose knowledge of biology was doubtless derived from a Greek lexicon or some equally good authority. Such quarantine restrictions as have been imposed upon certain products by some governments show total lack of knowledge as to the possible conditions of injurious transportation or else the misapplication of them to serve some special end.
The exclusion of American pork and American fruits from certain countries, the controversy over the fur seals in Alaska, the inconsistent laws of states or nations regarding game, are some of the instances where it is evident that the law-making power and the agents of diplomacy need to be re-enforced with definite biological knowledge.
But there is another phase quite distinct from the purely utilitarian. Biological science opens up to us the facts of life and solves some of the questions of the greatest interest to mankind. What is life? What its origin? What are the factors that have controlled its development and the wonderful complexities which we observe in its distribution and adaptations? Are the forces that operate in the living organism merely physical, mechanical and chemical or are there activities inherent in life itself or that operate only in the presence of the life containing complex? Certainly, in no other branch of science are there problems more inviting. In no other has present knowledge given greater inspiration or greater intellectual service to mankind.
The field for acquisition of knowledge widens with each new discovery. We no sooner gain foothold in some hitherto unexplored realm than we become conscious that beyond this lie still other realms, knowledge of which has been dependent on knowledge of the routes by which they may be reached.
Thus structure must be known to understand function, and function known enables us to interpret structure. Evolution could not be demonstrated until after there had been gathered the necessary materials to show relations of different organisms, past and present. But, evolution known, and vast arrays of structure become intelligible. Without the knowledge of organic distribution no laws of distribution could be framed, but without the explanation of distribution afforded by evolution the facts are an unmeaning puzzle. So, too, without an effort at systematic arrangement of plant and animal forms no fundamental law of relationship could have been discovered, but given a law of relationship and systematic biology assumes a totally different aspect. Recognition of the multitudinous forms of nature are but one step then in the presentation of the vast concourse in their proper relations.
No doubt biologists will persist till every form of life has been adequately described and some means of designating it adopted. So much may be expected from the enthusiasm of the systematist. Some centuries of effort must, of course, be expected to elapse before the task is done. But it is evident that the modern biology is much less concerned in the mere recognition of these innumerable forms of life, these remotest expressions of the force of evolution, than in the gaining of some adequate conception of their relations, the forces of adaptation that have fitted them for their particular niche in the realm of nature, their relation to the other organisms with which they are associated and which constitute for them a source of support or a menace to existence. That is, modern biology concerns itself not only with the elements of structure in the organism, with the means it has of performing its varied functions with the aggregate of individuals which constitute its species, but goes on to its relations to all the influences and forces which have made it what it is and which sustain its specific existence. Less than this is too narrow a view of the province of biology. Here is unlimited scope for the student who pursues knowledge for love of knowledge.
As an inspiration to the general student the field of biology has always held an important place, and in these modern times its fascination is as potent as ever. Men have attacked the problems of life from many different viewpoints with greatly different aim and great difference in preparation and method in their work. Some of these have sought merely for inspiration for literary effort, but so far as their records have been exact and truthful they are contributions to science, when mixed with “vain imaginings” they become literature and not science, although their right to rank here may depend on literary merit. Every gradation from pure fiction to pure science may be found and every grade of literary merit as well. White and Goldsmith, Wood and Figuier, Kipling and Seton-Thompson, with many others that could be cited, illustrate this wide divergence among writers who have written to the entertainment and the greater or less profit of their readers. The value of such works as these is rather hard to estimate, especially from the scientific standpoint and particularly when one is under the hallucination of a beautiful piece of literary creation. They furnish entertainment and cultivate imagination, some of them stimulate observation and awaken an interest in nature, but unfortunately many of them contain so much that is inexact or erroneous that they may sadly encumber the minds of their readers.