A Civic Biology, Presented in Problems

by George W. Hunter

Lister and Antiseptic Treatment of Wounds.—A third great benefactor of mankind was Sir Joseph Lister, an Englishman who was born in 1827. As a professor of surgery he first applied antiseptics in the operating room. By means of the use of carbolic acid or other antiseptics on the surface of wounds, on instruments, and on the hands and clothing of the operating surgeons, disease germs were prevented from taking a foothold in the wounds. Thus blood poisoning was prevented. This single discovery has done more to prevent death after operations than any other of recent time.

Modern Workers on the Blood.—At the present time several names stand out among investigators on the blood. Paul Ehrlich, a German born in 1854, is justly famous for his work on the blood and its relation to immunity from certain diseases. His last great research has given to the world a specific against the dread disease syphilis.

Another name associated with the blood is that of Elias Metchnikoff, a Russian. He was born in 1845. Metchnikoff first advanced the belief that the colorless blood corpuscles, or phagocytes, did service as the sanitary police of the body. He has found that there are several different kinds of colorless corpuscles, each having somewhat different work to do. Much of the modern work done by physiologists on the blood are directly founded on the discoveries of Metchnikoff.

Charles Darwin, the grand old man of biology.

Heredity and Evolution. Charles Darwin.—There is still another important line of investigation in biology that we have not mentioned. This is the doctrine of evolution and the allied discoveries along the line of heredity. The development or evolution of plants and animals from simpler forms to the many and present complex forms of life have a practical bearing on the betterment of plants and animals, including man himself. The one name indelibly associated with the word evolution is that of Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809, a son of well-to-do parents, in the pretty English village of Shrewsbury. As a boy he was very fond of out-of-door life, was a collector of birds' eggs, stamps, coins, shells, and minerals. He was an ardent fisherman, and as a young man became an expert shot. His studies, those of the English classical school, were not altogether to his liking. It is not strange, perhaps, that he was thought a very ordinary boy, because his interest in the out-of-doors led him to neglect his studies. Later he was sent to Edinburgh University to study medicine. Here the dull lectures, coupled with his intense dislike for operations, made him determine never to become a physician. But all this time he showed his intense interest in natural history and took frequent part in the discussions at the meetings of one of the student zoölogical societies.

In 1828 his father sent him to Cambridge to study for the ministry. His three years at the university were wasted so far as preparation for the ministry were concerned, but they were invaluable in shaping his future. He made the acquaintance of one or two professors who were naturalists like himself, and in their company he spent many happy hours in roaming over the countryside collecting beetles and other insects. In 1831 an event occurred which changed his career and made Darwin one of the world's greatest naturalists. He received word through one of his professional friends that the position of naturalist on her Majesty's ship Beagle was open for a trip around the world. Darwin applied for the position, was accepted, and shortly after started on an eventful five years' trip around the world. He returned to England a famous naturalist and spent the remainder of his long and busy life producing books which have done more than those of any other writer to account in a satisfactory way for the changes of form and habits of plants and animals on the earth. His theories established a foundation upon which plant and animal breeders were able to work.

His wonderful discovery of the doctrine of evolution was due not only to his information and experimental evidence, but also to an iron determination and undaunted energy. In spite of almost constant illness brought about by eyestrain, he accomplished more than most well men have done. His life should mean to us not so much the association of his name with the Origin of Species or Plants and Animals under Domestication, two of his most famous books, but rather that of a patient, courteous, and brave gentleman who struggled with true English pluck against the odds of disease and the attacks of hostile critics. He gave to the world the proofs of the theory on which we to-day base the progress of the world. Darwin lived long enough to see many of his critics turn about and come over to his beliefs. He died on the 19th of April, 1882, at seventy-four years of age.

Associated with Darwin's name we must place two other co-workers on heredity and evolution, Alfred Russel Wallace, an Englishman who independently and at about the same time reached many of the conclusions that Darwin came to, and August Weissman, a German. The latter showed that the protoplasm of the germ cells (eggs and sperms) is directly handed down from generation to generation, they being different from the other body cells from the very beginning. In 1883 a German named Boveri discovered that the chromosomes of the egg and the sperm cell were at the time of fertilization just half in number of the other cells (see page [252]) so that a fertilized egg was really a whole cell made up of two half cells, one from each parent. The chromosomes within the nucleus, we remember, are believed to be the bearers of the hereditary qualities handed down from parent to child. This discovery shows us some of the mechanics of heredity.