78 Greek Biology 



such as Cuvier (1769-1832) and members of the Saint-Hilaire 

 family, Aristotle came again to his own. Since the dawn of the 

 nineteenth century, and since naturalists have been in a position 

 to verify the work of Aristotle, his reputation as a naturalist 

 has continuously risen. Johannes Miiller (1801-58), Richard 

 Owen (1804-92), George Henry Lewes (1817-78), William 

 Ogle (1827-1912) are a few of the long line of those who have 

 derived direct inspiration from his biological work. With 

 improved modern methods of investigation the problems of 

 generation have absorbed a large amount of biological attention, 

 and interest has become specially concentrated on Aristotle's 

 work on that topic which is perhaps, at the moment, morewidely 

 read than any biological treatise, ancient or modern, except 

 the works of Darwin. That great naturalist wrote to Ogle in 

 1882 : ' From quotations I had seen I had a high notion of 

 Aristotle's merits, but I had not the most remote notion what 

 a wonderful man he was. Linnaeus and Cuvier have been my 

 two gods, though in very different ways, but they were mere 

 schoolboys to old Aristotle.' 



