Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

As a result of these advances, animal organization began to have a different meaning to the more discerning naturalists, those whose discoveries began to influence the trend of thought, and finally, the idea which had been so often previously expressed became a settled conviction, that all the higher forms of life are derived from simpler ones by a gradual process of modification.

Besides great progress in biology, the nineteenth century was remarkable for similar advances in physics and chemistry. Although these subjects purport to deal with inorganic or lifeless nature, they touch biology in an intimate way. The vital processes which take place in all animals and plants have been shown to be physico-chemical, and, as a consequence, one must go to both physics and chemistry in order to understand them. The study of organic chemistry in late years has greatly influenced biology; not only have living products been analyzed, but some of them have already been constructed in the chemical laboratory. The formation of living matter through chemical means is still far from the thought of most chemists, but very complex organic compounds, which were formerly known only as the result of the action of life, have been produced, and the possibilities of further advances in that direction are very alluring. It thus appears that the discoveries in various fields have worked together for a better comprehension of nature.

The Domain of Biology.—The history of the transformation of opinion in reference to living organisms is an interesting part of the story of intellectual development. The central subject that embraces it all is biology. This is one of the fundamental sciences, since it embraces all questions relating to life in its different phases and manifestations. Everything pertaining to the structure, the development, and the evolution of living organisms, as well as to their physiology, belongs to biology. It is now of commanding importance in the world of science, and it is coming more and more to be recognized that it occupies a field of compelling interest not only for medical men and scholars, but for all intelligent people. The discoveries and conquests of biology have wrought such a revolution in thought that they should be known to all persons of liberal culture. In addition to making acquaintance with the discoveries, one ought to learn something about the history of biology; for it is essential to know how it took its rise, in order to understand its present position and the nature of its influence upon expanding ideas regarding the world in which we live.

In its modern sense, biology did not arise until about 1860, when the nature of protoplasm was first clearly pointed out by Max Schultze, but the currents that united to form it had long been flowing, and we can never understand the subject without going back to its iatric condition, when what is now biology was in the germ and united with medicine. Its separation from medicine, and its rise as an independent subject, was owing to the steady growth of that zest for exploration into unknown fields which began with the new birth of science in the sixteenth century, and has continued in fuller measure to the present. It was the outcome of applying observation and experiment to the winning of new truths.

Difficulties.—But biology is so comprehensive a field, and involves so many details, that it is fair to inquire: can its progress be made clear to the reader who is unacquainted with it as a laboratory study? The matter will be simplified by two general observations—first, that the growth of biology is owing to concurrent progress in three fields of research, concerned, respectively, with the structure or architecture of living beings, their development, and their physiology. We recognize also a parallel advance in the systematic classification of animals and plants, and we note, furthermore, that the idea of evolution permeates the whole. It will be necessary to consider the advances in these fields separately, and to indicate the union of the results into the main channel of progress. Secondly, in attempting to trace the growth of ideas in this department of learning one sees that there has been a continuity of development. The growth of these notions has not been that of a chaotic assemblage of ideas, but a well-connected story in which the new is built upon the old in orderly succession. The old ideas have not been completely superseded by the new, but they have been molded into new forms to keep pace with the advance of investigation. In its early phases, the growth of biology was slow and discursive, but from the time of Linnæus to Darwin, although the details were greatly multiplied, there has been a relatively simple and orderly progress.

Facts and Ideas.—There are many books about biology, with directions for laboratory observation and experiment, and also many of the leading facts of the science have been given to the public, but an account of the growth of the ideas, which are interpretations of the facts, has been rarely attempted. From the books referred to, it is almost impossible to get an idea of biology as a unit; this even the students in our universities acquire only through a coherent presentation of the subject in the classroom, on the basis of their work in the laboratory. The critical training in the laboratory is most important, but, after all, it is only a part, although an essential part, of a knowledge of biology. In general, too little attention is paid to interpretations and the drill is confined to a few facts. Now, the facts are related to the ideas of the science as statistics to history—meaningless without interpretation. In the rise of biology the facts have accumulated constantly, through observation and experiment, but the general truths have emerged slowly and periodically, whenever there has been granted to some mind an insight into the meaning of the facts. The detached facts are sometimes tedious, the interpretations always interesting.

The growth of the knowledge of organic nature is a long story, full of human interest. Nature has been always the same, but the capacity of man as its interpreter has varied. He has had to pass through other forms of intellectual activity, and gradually to conquer other phases of natural phenomena, before entering upon that most difficult task of investigating the manifestations of life. It will be readily understood, therefore, that biology was delayed in its development until after considerable progress had been made in other sciences.

It is an old saying that "Truth is the daughter of Time," and no better illustration of it can be given than the long upward struggle to establish even the elemental truths of nature. It took centuries to arrive at the conception of the uniformity of nature, and to reach any of those generalizations which are vaguely spoken of as the laws of nature.

The Men of Science.—In the progress of science there is an army of observers and experimenters each contributing his share, but the rank and file supply mainly isolated facts, while the ideas take birth in the minds of a few gifted leaders, either endowed with unusual insight, or so favored by circumstances that they reach general conclusions of importance. These advance-guards of intellectual conquest we designate as founders. What were they like in appearance? Under what conditions did they work, and what was their chief aim? These are interesting questions which will receive attention as our narrative proceeds.

A study of the lives of the founders shows that the scientific mood is pre-eminently one of sincerity. The men who have added to the growth of science were animated by an unselfish devotion to truth, and their lasting influence has been in large measure a reflection of their individual characters. Only those have produced permanent results who have interrogated nature in the spirit of devotion to truth and waited patiently for her replies. The work founded on selfish motives and vanity has sooner or later fallen by the wayside. We can recognize now that the work of scientific investigation, subjected to so much hostile criticism as it appeared from time to time, was undertaken in a reverent spirit, and was not iconoclastic, but remodelling in its influence. Some of the glories of our race are exhibited in the lives of the pioneers in scientific progress, in their struggles to establish some great truth and to maintain intellectual integrity.