550 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS 



zoological research of which we have any record. By his royal patron, 

 Alexander the Great, he was given a grant of 800 talents, which is equiva- 

 lent to about $1,150,000 of our money but with a purchasing value corre- 

 sponding to $4,000,000 today (Durant). With this assistance Aristotle 

 gathered extensive collections and made many very precise observations. 

 He knew that some sharks are viviparous and that an attachment is 

 formed between the young and the wall of the uterus of the female. He 

 also observed the development of the chick and viewed that of animals in 

 general as a process of the gradual building of complex structures from a 



Fig. 332. — Andreas Vesalius, 1514-1564. {From Shull, " Principles of Animal Biology," 

 after Garrison, "History of Medicine," and by the courtesy of McGraw-Hill Book Company, 

 Inc.) 



simple beginning. Although many of his ideas were erroneous, Aristotle's 

 work was the beginning of scientific zoology, and consequently he has been 

 known as the father of zoology. He also furnished the first classification 

 of animals. That his work was not the first is evident from his reference 

 to facts gleaned from "the ancients," but those facts were inconsiderable 

 in value compared to those which he accumulated. The Greeks who 

 followed him added little. Galen (131-201 a.d.) was a physician and an 

 anatomist whose contributions were based largely on actual observations 

 of animals and who in his work brought together all the anatomical 

 knowledge of his time. 



623. Dark Ages. — From the decay of Greek civilization to the revival 

 of learning in the sixteenth century little advance was made. Pliny 



