84 HISTORY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF SCIENCE 



culations is said to have been "so great that he could hardly 

 see his figures"; and certain it is that of all the generaliza- 

 tions of science none is more marvelous than the theoretical 

 extension of the simple phenomena of motion and gravita- 

 tion, observed on the surface of the earth, to the farthest star. 



Mathematical science was keeping pace. Indeed the work 

 above indicated would have been impossible at an earlier 

 period, when methods of calculation were little developed. 

 Space will not permit a further elaboration of the progress 

 of science along these mathematical-physical lines during 

 the period under discussion. We may emphasize, in con- 

 clusion, the growing significance of the philosophical aspects 

 of mathematics and physics, in addition to their value as 

 practical tools of science. 



In the biological sciences, the Middle Ages had, as we have 

 seen, produced little beyond a garbled and childish account 

 of some of the ancient knowledge of Aristotle and Galen. 

 Gradually the study of human anatomy by dissection be- 

 came possible. In 1315, da Luzzi had published a manual 

 of anatomy, based not upon Galen but upon actual dissec- 

 tion. Vesalius (1514-1564) now laid bare the secrets of the 

 human frame and overthrew many traditional errors. 

 Harvey (1578-1657) not only discovered the circulation of 

 the blood but also established the experimental method 

 which has since dominated the science of physiology. Bot- 

 any was widely cultivated through the search for herbs of 

 medicinal value. The first Botanical Gardens came into 

 existence for the cultivation of rare and interesting plants. 

 Stimulated by medical science and by the general awakening, 

 the biological sciences were proceeding along two great lines : 

 knowledge of the number and kinds of animals and plants 

 Natural History; and knowledge of minute structures and 

 organisms Microscopy. The microscope did not come into 

 use as an instrument of biological investigation until the 

 latter half of the seventeenth century, but the more general 

 facts of microscopic structure, aside from the cell-theory, had 



