14 THE BIOLOGICAL PROBLEM 



to measure the physical exterior time. In other words, we 

 will confront a time felt and lived, with a time merely con- 

 ceived. We will thus directly oppose ///<?, the subconscious, 

 to intelligence. 



The study which first imposed itself on the human mind 

 was evidently that of whole organisms in the animal and 

 vegetable kingdoms. In principle, this requires neither 

 laboratories nor complicated apparatus. The old-time natu- 

 ralists and botanists began by describing what they saw. 

 The eye, the ear, the senses in general, are the only instru- 

 ments needed for these contemplative sciences. It is not even 

 necessary for the scientist to do the observing himself, as is 

 proved by the example of the great naturahst Francois Huber, 

 who although blind left some remarkable experiments which 

 he conceived on the subject of the life of bees (1814) and 

 which were executed and seen by his servant, who had 

 absolutely no scientific ideas of his own. Huber was thus the 

 directing spirit, but he was obliged to borrow another man's 

 senses. However, the pure and simple description of nature 

 does not in itself constitute a scientific work. It leads to a 

 classification which would be extremely complex and without 

 significance if it did not seek to establish, behind the different 

 appearances of individuals, the similarities leading to kinships 

 which are real even though less apparent. That is why the 

 observer must be completed by the experimenter. Claude 

 Bernard wrote at the beginning of his Introduction to the 

 Study of Experimental Medicine some beautiful pages in which 

 he analysed at length these two forms of activity of the 

 scientist in general. 



'The observer purely and simply describes the phenome- 

 non which takes place before his eyes. The only thing he 

 must ward against is an error of observation which might 

 lead him to see a phenomenon incompletely or define it 

 badly. To this end he will employ all the instruments which 

 can help him to make his observation more complete. The 

 observer must be the photographer of the phenomena, his 



