PROBLEMS OF MODERN SCIENCE 



living organism, taken as a whole, however, is 

 something more than a mere physico-chemical 

 machine. It possesses an individuality and exhibits 

 a purposive behaviour which raise it to an alto- 

 gether higher plane of existence, and in this 

 fact, apart altogether from the question of con- 

 venience of treatment, lies the justification for 

 separating Biology from Chemistry and Physics 

 and regarding it as one of the cardinal sciences. 



It has long been recognised that the content 

 of our science, as thus defined, is far too vast and 

 comprehensive to be treated academically as a 

 single subject, and in our universities it is cus- 

 tomary to divide it primarily into Zoology, Botany, 

 Anatomy, and Physiology, the two latter, together 

 with Medicine, being treated rather as applied than 

 pure sciences, and developed with special reference 

 to a single organism Man. 



There is much to be said for this arrangement 

 as a mere matter of convenience, and doubtless on 

 the whole it has justified itself, but it has many 

 grave disadvantages, and a strictly logical founda- 

 tion can hardly be claimed for it. 



The divorce between Zoology and Botany in 

 particular has been a serious hindrance to the 

 development of Philosophical Biology, which in 

 many seats of learning has been allowed to fall 

 helplessly between the two stools, while undue 

 stress has been laid upon the descriptive and 

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