Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/essaysofbiologis1923huxl ESSAYS OF A BIOLOGIST * * * * * * DUCTLESS AND OTHER GLANDS _Fred E. Wynne, M. B._ A brief description of the results of recent research into the physiology and functions of the ductless glands and the application of this knowledge to the prevention and cure of disease. * * * * * * ESSAYS of a BIOLOGIST by JULIAN HUXLEY [Illustration: Logo] New York Alfred · A · Knopf 1923 Copyright, 1923, by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Published October, 1923 Set up, electrotyped, printed and bound by the Vail-Ballou Press, Inc., Binghamton, N. Y. Paper furnished by W. F. Etherington & Co., New York. Manufactured in the United States of America TO MY COLLEAGUES AND FRIENDS AT THE RICE INSTITUTE HOUSTON, TEXAS PREFACE A preface should be long, like one of Mr. Shaw’s, or short. I propose the latter. The essays here collected were written on very various occasions. This must excuse the considerable overlap that will be found among them. I have not thought it worth while to attempt to get rid of this, since, though facts may be repeated, the point of view and general context are on each occasion different. Contrary to all custom, I have put the meat courses at the two ends of my menu. If an author may presume to advise his readers, I would suggest that, after finishing the first essay, they should (if they retain a stomach for more) proceed at once to the last. This done, they will find the others all in a sense lesser variations (if I may change my metaphor) upon the same themes. In spite, however, of the diversity of their occasions, there is a common thread running through them, a common background of ideas. I do not know whether I am justified in calling those ideas especially biological, but they are certainly ideas which must present themselves to any biologist who does not deliberately confine himself to the technicalities of his science.