Biology and Its Makers / With Portraits and Other Illustrations

by William A. Locy

The names of some of the men of biology, such as Harvey, Linnæus, Cuvier, Darwin, Huxley, and Pasteur, are widely known because their work came before the people, but others equally deserving of fame on account of their contributions to scientific progress will require an introduction to most of our readers.

In recounting the story of the rise of biology, we shall have occasion to make the acquaintance of this goodly company. Before beginning the narrative in detail, however, we shall look summarily at some general features of scientific progress and at the epochs of biology.

The Conditions under which Science Developed

In a brief sketch of biology there is relatively little in the ancient world that requires notice except the work of Aristotle and Galen; but with the advent of Vesalius, in 1543, our interest begins to freshen, and, thereafter, through lean times and fat times there is always something to command our attention.

The early conditions must be dealt with in order to appreciate what followed. We are to recollect that in the ancient world there was no science of biology as such; nevertheless, the germ of it was contained in the medicine and the natural history of those times.

There is one matter upon which we should be clear: in the time of Aristotle nature was studied by observation and experiment. This is the foundation of all scientific advancement. Had conditions remained unchanged, there is reason to believe that science would have developed steadily on the basis of the Greek foundation, but circumstances, to be spoken of later, arose which led not only to the complete arrest of inquiry, but also, the mind of man being turned away from nature, to the decay of science.

Aristotle the Founder of Natural History.—The Greeks represented the fullest measure of culture in the ancient world, and, naturally, we find among them the best-developed science. All the knowledge of natural phenomena centered in Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), and for twenty centuries he represented the highest level which that kind of knowledge had attained.

It is uncertain how long it took the ancient observers to lift science to the level which it had at the beginning of Aristotle's period, but it is obvious that he must have had a long line of predecessors, who had accumulated facts of observation and had molded them into a system before he perfected and developed that system. We are reminded that all things are relative when we find Aristotle referring to the ancients; and well he might, for we have indubitable evidence that much of the scientific work of antiquity has been lost. One of the most striking discoveries pointing in that direction is the now famous papyrus which was found by Georg Ebers in Egypt about 1860. The recent translation of this ancient document shows that it was a treatise on medicine, dating from the fifteenth century B.C. At this time the science of medicine had attained an astonishingly high grade of development among that people. And since it is safe to assume that the formulation of a system of medicine in the early days of mankind required centuries of observation and practice, it becomes apparent that the manuscript in question was no vague, first attempt at reducing medicine to a system. It is built upon much scientific knowledge, and must have been preceded by writings both on medicine and on its allied sciences.

It is not necessary that we should attempt to picture the crude beginnings of the observation of animated nature and the dawning of ideas relative to animals and plants; it is suitable to our purpose to commence with Aristotle, and to designate him, in a relative sense, as the founder of natural history.

That he was altogether dissatisfied with the state of knowledge in his time and that he had high ideals of the dignity of science is evidenced in his writings. Although he refers to the views of the ancients, he regarded himself in a sense as a pioneer. "I found no basis prepared," he says, "no models to copy.... Mine is the first step, and therefore a small one, though worked out with much thought and hard labor. It must be looked at as a first step and judged with indulgence." (From Osborn's From the Greeks to Darwin.)